


Unexpected

by Ianthe (PaganIanthe)



Series: Destined [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2018-05-27 12:40:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6284896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaganIanthe/pseuds/Ianthe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After their summer vacation in Iowa, Steve and Darcy have to return to the reality that is their lives, and their very different jobs.  Of course, this doesn't mean they will stop thinking about everything they experienced together, and wish they could return to the little bit of paradise that it ended up being.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Return to reality

**Author's Note:**

> I promised (sort of) a sequel to [Serendipity](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4966912) and here it is. Thanks go to everyone who encouraged, and my brilliant beta Palmetto Blue.
> 
> I have also included a subtle hint to one of my favourite books of all time - see if you can find it!

Darcy flashed the temporary pass that Jane had emailed her to the guard as she drove into the secure underground parking garage beneath Tony Stark’s narcissistic monolith.  She grinned at the man who stared at her car in horror even as he waved her through.  Pulling into the space next to Jane’s old wreck of a van, she switched off the engine then got out of the car.  Unlike most garages it was well-lit and didn’t have the overpowering aroma of stale piss, instead smelling a little like expensive gas and a note of aftershave (the latter was confusing, but she guessed Stark likely had something pumped in through the grates!).    
  
After sending a quick text to Jane to let her know she’d arrived, she started to unpack her stuff from the trunk, fully aware of her amused audience - two strong, capable security guards who simply watched as she struggled to get her unwieldy bags from the car.  “Why thank you,” she muttered as she dropped the heavy suitcase on her foot, “But of course I don’t want any help!”  
  
“Still talking to yourself?”  Darcy turned and let out a quiet squeal, wrapping her arms around Jane and hugging her tightly.  
  
“Of course, how else am I going to get a sensible answer?  Hardly expect one from Tweedledum and Tweedledee over there,” she tilted her head in the direction of the little booth where the guards could clearly be seen.  
  
Jane released her with a laugh, and grabbed her hand, “Come on, I can’t wait to show you the labs.”  Darcy could see that Jane was hopped up on _far_ too much caffeine, and clearly was in need of some down time.  “I’m so glad you’re back,” she pushed the button to call the elevator and pulled Darcy into another bone-cracking hug.  “I’ve nearly run out of Pop Tarts, and the people here just try and give me vegetables, Darcy.  Vegetables!”  
  
Darcy didn’t even try to stifle the laughter that bubbled up in her throat, “Don’t ever change, Janey,” she told her, just as the elevator doors slid open.  “Come on, you can show me these _amazing_ labs, and then I think it’s time you took a bit of a nap.”    
  
The ride up to the lab floor was both smooth and quick, and Darcy couldn’t help but be impressed; Stark obviously liked the best, and that clearly included absolutely everything in the building right down to the elevators.  
  
Leaving her bags with the guard sitting at the desk in front of the lab entrance, Darcy was both relieved and amused to see that security was taken very seriously; she was also incredibly happy to note that, judging by the shiny coffee machine, massive couch and big screen TV, the comfort of the workers was also very important.  “Nice, Dr Foster,” she joked, walking through the entrance to a lab at least twice the size of the one they’d used in Puente Antiguo, filled with all of Jane’s duct tape covered equipment, and a desk of brand new Starkpads and laptops.  Just the thought of all that new software to play with made Darcy’s palms itch!  
  
After nearly an hour following Jane around the lab, Darcy had had enough, “C’mon Jane, I’ve been driving all day, need to get clean and stuff my face with a double pepperoni.”  Jane looked at her from behind a reinforced plexiglass screen with a disappointed expression on her face and rolled her eyes.  “And you need to take a break before you fry some of those circuits.”  
  
“Give me another hour?  I just want to check these…”  
  
Darcy hurried across the room, her sneakers squeaking on the tiles, and grabbed the printouts from Jane’s desk, ignoring her friend’s grunt of protest.  “You can look at these tomorrow, they aren’t going to grow legs and walk out of here before then.”  She stuffed the bundle of papers into the top drawer of an empty filing cabinet and locked it, pocketing the key with a triumphant grin, “You can have that tomorrow after a proper meal and a whole six hours of sleep.”  
  
With a heavy sigh of resignation, Jane turned off the machine she’d just started to set up, picked up her laptop bag, hugged it to her chest protectively and headed for the exit.  Darcy attempted to grab for the laptop, determined that Jane would have no way of working, unsurprised when her friend almost growled at her.  “I’ve already told you, Janey; food, then bed!”  
  
The apartment on the 79th floor was indeed massive; though it was easy to see that Jane had done little more than dump her stuff in a room, the place looked barely lived in.  It was certainly spacious, white walls, modern black couch piled high with fluffy-looking cushions, kitchen surfaces covered with empty pizza boxes, and a stove that looked as though it had never been used.  Darcy dropped her suitcases just inside the door and, after taking a few moments to stare at the place, slack-jawed, ushered Jane to the couch before heading into the kitchen.  It didn’t take long to realise that the kitchen lacked anything resembling food, so it was going to have to be takeout, but, at least, Darcy had a clue about where she was going to start!  
  
By the time Darcy had ordered the pizza - extra pepperoni hold the anchovies - Jane was asleep half on, and half off, the couch.  After a draping a throw over her friend, she slumped down on the recliner, turned the TV on low and settled back to watch a repeat of Daria; the blunt monotone delivery was something that influenced her when she was attempting something resembling rebellion during her teens.  She was just starting the third episode in what looked to be an all-night marathon, when the concierge called up to let her know that the pizzas had arrived.  
  
She didn’t waste any time in heading down to the first floor in the super-speed elevator and picking up the food.  She was starving, having eaten little more than Chex Mix and a snack pack (or three) of Oreos over the last day.  Presented with the stuffed crust she was unable to resist; it took less than two minutes to get back to Jane’s floor, and that was all it took for her to decimate two rather generous slices.  Letting herself back into the apartment, she placed the box on the counter, picked up a third slice, and dropped back into her chair, tucking her legs underneath her bum and flicking through the TV stations until she found one airing _Love Actually_ .  
  
Just as the little kid started his run through the airport to catch his first love before she caught her plane out of the country, Jane started to stir, her shoes squeaking on the leather couch as she rolled over, a groan leaving her lips as she reluctantly, and slowly, sat up.  
  
“Told you that you were tired,” Darcy told her, her tone just a little smug.  “Bet you were seeing really weird things too.”  
  
“Food?” Jane questioned, standing up and heading over to the kitchen.  
  
It always amazed Darcy how much Jane managed to eat; she was a tiny little thing, but she inhaled food easily as quickly and efficiently as Thor.  Jane stuffed the crust of her third piece of pizza into her mouth and then fell back gracefully onto the couch with a fourth, a stain of red tomato sauce around her mouth and a glint of curiosity in her eyes.  “So…” she started, leaning over to switch off the TV, an act which earned a glare from Darcy.  
  
“So?” Darcy responded, her tone a little cautious.  
  
“What happened with sexy Harley guy?  Was he crap in the sack?  Did he have a wife and four kids hidden away somewhere?  Or was he just a massive freak?”  
  
“Oh my God!  What the hell goes on in your mind when you’re not sciencing?”  She walked over to the fridge, took out two condensation-covered bottles of _Bud Light_ and handed one to Jane before unscrewing the cap of the one in her hand, and taking a healthy swig.  
  
“Come on, what happened to get you back here so quickly?  I was sure that you would be so busy getting busy it would be at least another month.”  Jane grinned, then opened her own drink and took a sip, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.  “There’s a story here, I know.”  
  
“Nothing happened; he was perfectly normal, not at all freaky and then it was over,” she shrugged again, “It was fun!”  
  
“So you don’t regret it?  Wish it had lasted longer? Did you even exchange numbers?”  
  
“No. Of course I do, that guy was seriously ripped, he almost put your hunk of blond Godness to shame and yes, but I’m not going to call him.”  Darcy counted off the answers on her fingers and then looked up at her friend with a smirk, “We had a load of fun, he had to leave and I want to just get on with my life.”  
  
“You’re really not going to call him?”  
  
“I don’t think that he wants me to.  He left without saying anything, Jane.  If that doesn’t say ‘so long and thanks for all the fish’ then I don’t know what does.”  Determined to change the subject, she headed over to the double doors leading out onto the balcony and pushed them open, walking outside to take in the view.  “Why don’t you tell me all about this amazing new project?”  
  
~*~  
  
Steve was getting more and more frustrated; they had been sitting outside the hotel in Bulgaria for the last 36 hours and nothing had happened.  Apart from a few questionable looking men with scruffy jackets and even scruffier hair, there had been no sign of movement.  Either Bucky had found some other way in and out of the hotel, or else he knew they were there and was holding out the hope they would disappear before food became an issue!  He hunkered down in the 1980s Ford they had bought for a song from a car dealer two streets over, and tried to ignore the spring that was now trying to get intimately acquainted with his ass.  
  
He took a deep breath and allowed his mind to wander for a few moments; he started to think about the summer, Iowa and Darcy, wondering what she was doing, had she been angry that he’d left without a word?  Was she, even now, sticking pins in a voodoo doll, or burning his pictures?  He shook his head to clear the thoughts from it, settling for unwrapping the rather stinky bacon and cheese sandwich Sam had left on the dash for him, and taking a large bite.  
  
“You’re looking thoughtful,” Sam interrupted the silence, studying Steve’s profile in the light shining through the car window from the street lamp.  “Want to talk about it?”  
  
“Nope,” Steve responded; the last thing he wanted now was for Sam to start psychoanalysing him.  
  
“There’s obviously something bothering you, Cap!”  
  
“Just thinking about stuff,” he stated, deciding that his thoughts on Darcy were going to stay just that, his thoughts.  
  
“Well, if you want to talk about anything, you know where I am,”  Sam told him, taking a swig from a bottle of water.  
  
“If you have someone’s number should you call them?”  Steve suddenly blurted out when the silence in the car became too heavy.  
  
“Okay,” Sam said, screwing the cap back on his bottle and shifting slightly in his seat.  “What do you mean?  How did you get this number?  Did this person give you their number so you’d call?  Is it someone I know?  Is it that hot blonde from HQ?  The one who looked as though she would eat you with or without cream?”  
  
“No, it’s not the blonde, her name’s Sharon by the way,” he gave Sam his best ‘Captain America is disappointed in you’ glare, then rolled his eyes when his friend appeared unimpressed.  “It’s someone I met while I was away.  To be honest I’m not sure if she’s expecting me to call at all.”  
  
“Oh my God, did Captain America actually do the date and ditch?”  Sam injected an element of fake horror into his statement, and did his best to look disappointed, but was unable to pull it off.  
  
“If I did the date and ditch - whatever that is - I wouldn’t be thinking about calling Dar...her at all.  I just want to make sure she’s okay.”  
  
“Whatever you decide to do - just be aware that all women get annoyed if someone runs off on them, and they can hold a grudge like no one’s business.  I remember this one time I went out with a girl I met while stationed in Florida, I had to leave real quick - a mission, you know, and when I got back all I got was a slap round the face, and her brother threatening to take me out back of the club we were in for a beating.  This girl doesn’t have any big brothers you need to worry about does she?”  
  
“She knew it was a vacation thing,” he stated, his tone only a little unsure.  They had never reached a point where they were talking about anything beyond the end of the summer, whenever that happened to be, and she hadn’t seemed overly bothered by the prospect of it being nothing more than an enjoyable interlude.  
  
“Sure…” Sam said, sounding a little bit cynical.  “They always say that.”  
  
Steve was sure that it had been more than just ‘saying’ anything.  They hadn’t spoken about keeping in touch, or about anything more than having fun; love definitely hadn’t been mentioned, though he had felt more than just simple attraction towards her, especially towards the end.  The summer had been a series of firsts for both of them, and they’d enjoyed it.  “No, really!  It was fun.”  He closed his eyes for a moment and remembered the way she’d looked as he left that last morning; she had seemed so peaceful in sleep and it wouldn’t be fair for him to bring her into the insanity that his life was the majority of the time.  He had to consider the fact he barely spent more than a few days in any one place at the moment.  Maybe once he returned to New York a little more permanently, and everything had returned to some semblance of normality...


	2. But the shoes...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy's all about the shoes, and impressing Pepper Potts. This is all about Darcy and Jane and the girls (not her boobs!). A time for bonding and joking, and moving on.
> 
> I promise there will be Steve in the next chapter (I've already started writing it, and he's definitely in it).

Darcy sat down at her desk in the lab and banged her head on the surface.  “Oh my God, Janey, that was so embarrassing. I can’t believe I did that!”  
  
Jane fought back the urge to giggle; for the last week, Darcy had been trying her hardest to get noticed by Pepper Potts.  The knowledge that Pepper was searching for someone to replace the assistant head of public relations for SI is what had caused her to act like a klutz of the highest order.  To hear her tell it, this was as close to her dream job as she was ever going to get, even if it was only maternity cover.  “What happened?”   
  
“I’m such an idiot!” The words were muffled as she was mumbling into her arms.  “I dropped a cup of coffee all over her shoes.”   
  
“So?”  Jane responded, as far as she was concerned shoes were something that went on feet and served the purpose of keeping them warm.  “I am sure that they weren’t her only pair.”   
  
She lifted her head for a moment and moaned with despair, “They were a pair of this season’s Louboutin’s, I think I ruined them.”   
  
“I am sure that it’s not as bad as you think it is, Darce.”  Jane walked over and draped an arm around Darcy’s shoulders and gave her a hug.  “She doesn’t seem like the sort of person to hold a grudge over a pair of shoes.”  She nudged her lightly and smiled when the younger girl lifted her head and returned the smile with one of her own.  “Come on, we need to put that presentation together.  We need that funding so I can start paying you in more than meals and a bed in my spare room!”   
  
“Yep, and after about 20-years I might be able to buy a pair of shoes to replace the ones I ruined,” her voice turned into a low whine, which increased in volume when she heard the sound of the outer lab door sliding open and saw Pepper and her small entourage of assistants and Tony walk in.  “Oh God...Janey, promise you won’t let them fire me?”   
  
“Don’t be silly, Darce, I doubt they are here to…” her reassurance faded into silence when the door to the lab was pushed open and Pepper and Tony walked in.     
  
“What was that you were about to say, Janey?”  Darcy asked before stumbling off the stool and walking over to greet their guests.  “I am really sorry about the shoes…” she said before anyone else could get a word out.  “Is there anything I can do to make up for it?”   
  
“Darcy, it was just a coffee,” Pepper interrupted before Darcy could offer to do anything extreme, which it seemed she was on the verge of doing.   
  
“But they’re such beautiful shoes,” she replied tears gathering in the corners of her eyes at the thought of the damage the coffee had likely done to the stunning designer leather.  “I promise I’m not normally so clumsy.”   
  
“I’m not here for an apology, you’ve nothing to apologise for,”  Pepper interjected, lifting a hand to stop Tony from saying something stupid; as he was clearly champing at the bit to.  A glare in his direction from both Pepper _and_ Jane made it obvious that any comment from him was less than welcome.     
  
Pasting an innocent expression on his face, which was just a little bit less than convincing given everyone knew how his mind worked, Tony shrugged.  “What?” he asked.  “I wasn’t going to say anything.”   
  
“Darcy, Tony has mentioned several times that you are the only reason why things are currently so organised in the labs, and trust me when I tell you that sort of praise doesn’t come from him very often.”   
  
Darcy didn’t know what to say, she opened her mouth and no sound came out.  It was clear that she was stunned at the compliment.  Jane, in an effort to save her friend from embarrassment, pointed in the direction of the schedule of eating, sleeping, and working that Darcy had put on one of the larger whiteboards on the wall.  “She has me on a schedule,” she contributed, “and I’ve only blown up one machine this month.”  Jane was very proud of this statistic; one explosion in a month was a record as, before the enforced schedule she’d managed, somehow, to blow up six rather expensive machines in less than two weeks.   
  
“And she’s done the same for Tony, if Friday is to be believed,”  Pepper responded, clearly impressed with Darcy’s ability to control the seemingly uncontrollable.  “That’s why I want to offer you a job, Darcy.”   
  
_Here it is_ , Darcy thought.  She’d proved herself capable, and now she was finally going to get a job working in the field she had struggled to get qualifications in by correspondence course after leaving Culver rather suddenly to follow Jane around the globe.  “Thank you,” she managed to force out, desperately trying to hide the excitement she was feeling at the prospect of a paying job, and not just _any_ job, one she had actually trained for.  On the drive back from Iowa she’d given her next steps a lot of thought; she knew she couldn’t work as Jane’s assistant forever, no matter how much she loved her best friend.   
  
“Tony has mentioned, so many times, that you are the only reason that he managed to remember my birthday _and_ the fact that I am still allergic to strawberries, and I realised that we should make it official.  You’re an invaluable part of the lab team and even Bruce has mentioned that he finds them less stressful now that you’re organising everything.”  Pepper pulled a manila folder stuffed full of papers out of the black leather tote she was carrying and handed it over.  “I hope that you find the terms acceptable.  We would really love you to officially join SI as Lab Manager.”   
  
Even as she accepted the folder she felt her heart sink into her feet.  A proper job offer was something she had been wanting for ages, but she hadn’t planned to stay down in the labs forever, and now it seemed this was her fate.  “That’s fantastic, thank you,” she managed, dropping the folder onto her desk.   
  
“Make sure that you’re happy with the offer, and if you have any questions at all you can call my office”   
  
“I will definitely do that,” Darcy stated, offering a smile, though it took a great deal of effort.  “Again, thank you.”   
  
Business over, Pepper closed her tote and left the lab, walking across the hall to have a look at Tony’s latest project.  They could see, as they watched the couple, that she loved him enough to put up with his insane science babbling without losing her mind.   
  
The moment the doors closed, Jane turned to Darcy, her eyes glancing over the folder on the desk, which hadn’t been opened. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not happy with this?” she asked,  “I thought you wanted a proper job.”   
  
“It’s fantastic,” Darcy said, though her tone was rather dull, and the smile on her lips didn’t quite meet her eyes.  “It’s a good job, and I get to make sure you don’t disappear into a black hole because you haven’t eaten.”  Finally she flipped open the file, and started to read through the papers.  The salary being offered was more than generous, easily enough to make it possible for her to replace Pepper’s ruined shoes and buy herself a few pretty pairs of boots to replace the ones that were falling apart.  “Well I’ll say this for Tony; he obviously likes being bossed around by women,” she said after a moment of letting the shock sink in.  She picked up the piece of paper that showed the remuneration they were offering and handed it to Jane for a once over.   
  
“Well, this is good, right?”  Jane looked to Darcy for confirmation, “it certainly appears they are serious about wanting you to work for them...us.  I know it’s not what you were expecting, but it’s definitely better than a kick in the teeth.”   
  
“That’s true.  But that other job was so perfect, Janey.  I would’ve been so great at it.”  Despite feeling incredibly disappointed, Darcy had managed to refrain from letting any of her frustrated tears from falling.   
  
“And you’ll be just as great at this one,” Jane told her, her tone determined.  “You’ve been noticed, and you won’t always be a nutcase scientist handler.”     
  
“I have told you before, Janey, you’re not a nutball.”   
  
“I wasn’t talking about me, I was talking about Tony,” she declared, her positive tone causing Darcy to burst into laughter.   
  
“Oh, never a truer word was spoken,”  Darcy stated, her voice filled with amusement.  “I don’t know how someone like Pepper manages to put up with him.”   
  
“It’s because I’m amazing,” Tony interrupted, having returned Jane’s lab after Pepper had taken her assistant entourage back to the head offices on the 85th floor.  In the manner that was uniquely Tony, he completely ignored the glare that both women threw in his direction and blithely continued as though he were playing to a willing (and happy) audience.  “She knew a good thing when she found it.  And once she’d had me in bed...well...you know…”   
  
Grimacing, and not, for once, bothering to hide it, Darcy picked up her cell.  “I have her number now, Tony.  Want me to call and check your story out?”  She checked the number on the card Pepper had given her, and hadn’t even had a chance to dial the first number before Tony called a halt.   
  
“No, don’t you dare call her.  I thought we were bro’s!  I think I’ll take this,”  he grabbed the cellphone from her hand and placed it the back pocket of his pants.  “Just for safe-keeping,” he told Darcy, even as he backed out of the lab, slowly, so she didn’t have a chance to relieve him of the phone.  “I’ll be back later, when you’ve forgotten everything I just said.”   
  
“Fat chance, Stark,” Darcy called after him, “I need that phone, it has my grocery list on it.”  She thought about chasing him, but he simply crossed the hall into his own lab, closed the door and put the _Dangerous work in progress_ protocol in place, which essentially locked _everyone_ out.   
  
“He’ll give it back, Darce.  In the meantime, I could do with more Cinnamon Pop Tarts, some Ho Hos and a bag of that really good coffee that you found that time you got lost in the village.”   
  
Barely restraining herself from rolling her eyes at Jane’s food requests - for all that she was dating a prince her food tastes leaned far more towards that of a five-year-old than anything resembling a sophisticated palate - she picked up a pile of green post-it notes and a ballpoint, and wrote everything down.  In all likelihood, she would end up battling with Tony to get her phone back, as he had made NO bones about his dislike of anything that wasn’t Stark brand, so writing everything down was the last, but most reliable, resort.   
  
“Okay, well I’ll be back in a bit, with food…”   
  
“That I’ve asked for,” Jane was quick to stress, even though nothing she’d asked for resembled real food in any way at all.   
  
“Yes,” Darcy replied, “That you’ve asked for,” she rolled her eyes, then folded the post-it in her hand and stuffed it in her pocket.  “Make sure you don’t do anything stupid while I’m away.”   
  
“I’ll try my best,” Jane informed her, sticking her tongue out at her friend.  “Sometimes you’re worse than my mom, and I swear she’s got that whole coddling thing down to a fine art.”   
  
“Coddling?  Jane, my mom gave me advice on sex while I was there over the summer.  SEX!”  They’d had the talk about everything that had taken place over the summer in Iowa; everything that had happened with Steve and everything she wished she’d had a chance to do before they’d both had to get back to the real world.  Jane had giggled the whole way through every mention of Helen Lewis and the sex talk that had been both uncomfortable and awkward.  “There’s no competition, my mom makes yours look like someone who could be prosecuted for neglecting their kids!”   
  
Darcy pulled on her jacket and picked her tote up from the floor under her desk.  “Right, promise me that you won’t forget you have that meeting with the science twits at one, I’ll be back in about 30 minutes and want to see you already gone!”  She wrote the meeting down, for about the sixth time, on a piece of paper and stuck it to the white board with a magnet shaped like Iron Man’s face - the sort of magnet that kept on popping up to replace all her _Hello Kitty_ ones when she wasn’t looking.  “See, right there, so you don’t forget!”   
  
Leaving the lab she pulled her collar up around her ears, tugged on her favourite wool cap and pushed an earbud into one ear; to anyone looking she would look like almost everyone else, blocking the world out with headphones, despite the fact that at present they connected to nothing as Tony had her cellphone!   
  
“Don’t forget you need to stop by medical at some point.  Totally routine and everything, but they’re vampires in there.”  Jane called just as Darcy turned the corner heading towards the elevators.   
  
~*~   
  
It took forever to find the little out of the way store in the Village where she’d found the amazing coffee, but Darcy had nothing but time, especially as she was trying her damndest to avoid going back to the labs; it would mean blood tests, and poking and prodding, not that she had nightmares about that, or anything!  She took her time to pick out the various items on Jane’s list, she then added apples and oranges, some peaches and coconut water.   
  
The four-mile trek back to the Upper East Side took forever; she had to contend with insane traffic, aggressive pedestrians and someone who seemed to think that she would find it flattering if they followed her the whole way home - newsflash, she didn’t.  But the exercise was worth it - it would, at least, mean she could say she did do some when it came to the question and answer part of the poke and prod examination!   
  
After delivering the junk food to the labs, happily noting that Jane was indeed in her meeting, Darcy picked up her contract, read it through again, signed it and then headed down to the medical labs where they would be sticking needles in her arm, though hopefully it wouldn’t last too long.   
  
When she arrived there she was relieved to see that Helen Cho was the only person there; she could semi-cope with Helen seeing her have a mini attack of nerves at the sight of a needle being poked in her arm, she was sure that the calm doctor had seen plenty of nervous ninnies in her time!   
  
“Ahh, Darcy, to what do I owe the honour of your visit?”  Helen was always friendly, her humour a little bit dry, but she had been the third friendly face she had seen when she’d arrived at the tower, and they had struck up something of a friendship. They occasionally went out for cocktails both with and without Jane; laughing about the stupid things that Tony had done which ended up with him in the medi-bay, and joking about how they would both happily corrupt pure Mr Captain America if given the chance.   
  
“I need to have my medical.  I’m now apparently officially on Stark’s books so need the full work-up done.  Yay!”  She handed the relevant forms across and waited while Helen looked through them.     
  
“Well they do like to be thorough,” Helen responded after signing her own name on Darcy’s form and scanning it with the tablet she always had close to hand.  “It shouldn’t take too long, and then we can start planning our next girls’ night out - I can’t help feeling that cocktails are in our future!”   
  
“You and me both, I could do with a nice icy mojito pretty soonish.  How’re you set for tonight?”  It was only Wednesday, but after the weird day she’d had, she could call it a celebration for the new job, and compensation for all the stupid tests.  She barely noticed when Helen stuck a needle in the crook of her elbow and started to draw the blood for the series of tests that were in her employment contract, starting with drugs and ending with a full genetic workup to ensure that they weren’t hiring someone who had something in their genes that would have them keeling over from stress in a couple of years.  “Jane said that you guys were vampires down here,” Darcy confided after Helen had labelled the fourth vial and popped in the tray for processing.  “I think that you’re just a little bit greedy.”   
  
“Have you eaten today?”  Helen asked her, a little concerned that such a tiny bit of blood had her friend acting more than her usual loopy.   
  
“I dropped my coffee on Pepper Potts at lunch.  Can you believe that?  I dropped coffee all over her kickass shoes…” It wasn’t so much that she’d not eaten, it was more that she’d had so little sleep over the last few days, worrying about the job, about still living in Jane’s spare room - as nice as it was - so her sleep had been both disturbed and rubbish.   
  
“Darcy...are you okay?”   
  
“I’m a little bit tired is all,” Darcy replied to Helen’s worried query, “Haven’t been sleeping all that much, just need a good long…” she yawned, “...Nap.”  She closed her eyes, and within moments was snoring away with the best of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr, which you can find [here](http://iantheswriting.tumblr.com/) I post snippets and reblog lots of pretty stuff.


	3. So close...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's back at the tower after months searching for Bucky and he's desperate for a break. Darcy is still adjusting to her new life working for a pair of determined scientists who don't know when to take a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get this out - in fact I was sure that I had gone completely off the boil with this chapter, but my amazing beta Palmetto Blue assured me that it reads fine and that I am getting all my little ducks in a row for the big reveal (which I PROMISE is happening soon).

Steve hated to admit that he had failed at anything, but for the last two months, it felt as though he’d been following dead lead after dead lead.  No sooner would he reach a place where there had been rumoured sightings of Bucky than it was already cold.  Frustrated after the eighth lead in Bulgaria had proved to be less than recent, Steve had decided to pack up and head back to New York to gather as much intel as he could, and take a break from the unsuccessful searching.  Perhaps while he was there he would even attempt to call Darcy and see how things were.  He knew that it was highly possible she wouldn’t bother to answer his call, but he owed it to himself to try; the peace she had given him in Iowa was exactly what he needed.   
  
He could tell that Sam was relieved to be heading somewhere with a bed that didn’t have springs poking through the mattress or questionable looking sheets, and as much as he found the overindulgences that Stark enjoyed to be too much on occasion, he had to admit that the beds in the tower were incredibly comfortable and that would be welcome after so many months in dive hotels on good nights and sleeping in a car on bad ones.   
  
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed over to the garage where he had parked his bike all those months ago.  “You coming?” he yelled to Sam, not wondering if his friend would mind riding pillion or not; if he wanted to get to the tower he either would or he’d have to wait for a car!   
  
October in New York was changeable; one minute it could be sunny and relatively warm, the next it could be pouring rain and windy as hell.  Today they were lucky, the weather was average for fall; a soft breeze coming from the sea and light showers that barely got you wet before they stopped.  The sun was setting and the clouds had started to roll in when they pulled up outside the tower.  “Ignore how ugly it is,” Steve told Sam when he swung his leg over the bike and pulled the key out of the ignition.  “It’s a monument to Stark’s massive ego.”   
  
Sam walked through the large glass doors, and was unable to hide his expression of amazement when he saw the marble floors and elaborate chandelier that would’ve looked out of place anywhere else.  “It’s certainly a monument to something,” he replied, watching, amused as Steve fiddled with his phone as he keyed in a number and waited, tapping a finger on the empty reception desk, for someone to answer.   
  
After a few minutes of mumbling into the phone, Steve hung up and stated, “apparently someone called Foster is going to come down and get us - she’s been ordered to take a break by a bossy piece, according to Stark.”  They stood waiting at the elevators a little less than patiently for the doors to open.  In the time that he’d been away his information had been archived in Friday’s memory, for security reasons, so he was no longer able to get past the lobby, which meant he had to wait for someone to come down and let him in like a misbehaving child or unwelcome guest!   
  
To say that Foster wasn’t at all what they expected would be an understatement; she was a delicate brunette with huge eyes and such a slender figure that Steve was unable to believe it when she introduced herself.  “Hi, I’m Jane. Stark sent me down to bring you to the labs.”     
  
As she said her name it clicked, he’d heard it so frequently in conversations with Thor when he sang the praises of his “wonderful and beloved Lady Jane.”  He had expected an Amazon, someone much taller, perhaps a blonde with impressive assets and just different.  This tiny woman with huge eyes and a look as though she could easily be knocked down by the slightest breeze wasn’t what he imagined.  That she was able to tame the huge presence of someone like Thor was astounding.     
  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jane.  I’m Steve.”  He held his hand out to her and grinned when hers was completely covered, but she wasn’t a weakling, her grip was strong and she met his gaze with her own, as though she were trying to test him for some reason.  In that moment he realised why Thor was so enamoured with her; she was strong and intelligent, and didn’t shy away from anything, he also noticed that she had writing all up both arms, mathematical equations of some sort he had never seen outside of a meeting with Tony - when he was on a science bender - and had no hope of comprehending.   
  
The ride in the elevator was filled with quiet chatter about nothing; she mentioned her latest project - though revealed very little about the details of it, and, in turn, he asked about Thor, refusing to discuss the latest mission, which had been a waste of time and so frustrating that he was doing his best to write it off as nothing in his head.  Steve knew, hell, everyone knew, that Jane was working on a method of space travel which was based on something to do with black holes; he knew little to nothing about space travel and the science behind it was way over his head so when she started mumbling equations (or what he assumed to be equations) under her breath, he left her to it.     
  
A few minutes later any further potential awkwardness was ended when the elevator bell ‘dinged’ and the doors slid open to reveal a large open space living area filled with plush white couches and what looked like a sunken bar of some kind.  “Tony said that you could wait here,” Jane said, her voice sounding a little distracted as she had started to make notes on what looked like the only bit of free space on her slender arm.   
  
“I can think of worse places to wait,” Sam said as he dropped his bag to the floor and sank down into the nearest couch then, “how do you switch on the TV?”   
  
“Friday,” Jane called as she pressed the button to the doors and they started to close, “turn the TV on in the common room.”   
  
“This is the life,” Sam told Steve as they both sat on the couch and watched the images flicker across the TV screen.  “Don’t even have to get up to find the remote. Now we just need something to drink and some snacks and it’ll be perfect.”   
  
~*~   
  
Jane rushed back to the labs as though the hounds of hell were on her heels, but only because she’d run out of space to write her ideas down.  She scrabbled around on her cluttered desk until she found a marker and then started to scrawl across the glass boards that covered three of the walls, her writing large, messy and illegible to almost everyone.  Darcy looked up from where she was copying Jane’s previous notes into something a little bit less ‘scientific jargon from someone whose brain is permanently active’ and more ‘here people who don’t speak science, this makes sense’ and studied her friend.  “So I guess you forgot the coffee?”     
  
Darcy had known, even before she’d sent Jane away from the labs for a break, that expecting her to remember coffee when her mind was so full of science that getting her to eat something other than junk food she was basically hand fed was a problem.  Jane was the most intelligent person that Darcy knew, but she sometimes sank into such a science daze that she was barely able to function on any other level.     
  
“Huh?  Oh, sorry...why don’t you take a break?  I’ve just got to write this down before I forget.”  Darcy watched, amused, as Jane continued to write notes on the board, occasionally checking the messy scrawl on her forearm before making more and more notes across what had been the only clean board in the lab.    
  
“Did you actually get anything to eat when you went on your wander?” Darcy asked, locking her computer screen and gathering her iPod and prescription sunglasses from the desk, and dumping them in her bag.   
  
“No, Tony asked me to greet the latest guests to the Tower.  Captain America is in the house and I think you’d like him.  He looks a little like he could give your Harley man a run for his money.”  Jane teased as Darcy tugged her bag over her shoulder, “he’s in the common room if you want to go and ogle.”   
  
“Really?  What’s he like?  Does he look as big as his pictures?  Is he all ‘Truth, justice and the American way?’”  Whenever she and Helen Cho got together the pictures of Captain America were all they talked about after a few drinks; that, and how much they wanted to corrupt him.  If anyone asked Jane - which they didn’t - she believed that all his time with the USO girls, and all his time in the much freer America since he woke up had, more than likely, aided in any corruption there was to do.   
  
“I think he looked tired,” Jane told her.   
  
“Well I will have to meet the Captain later, right now my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut and I am in the need of food…” Just thinking about the pastrami on rye that Katz’s Deli made was making her mouth water.  “So are you.”  Though she’d only been in the city a few months she was making it her business to find all the places that could make the best food and drink that the city had to offer.  “I’m getting a pastrami, want anything in particular?”  Darcy was very picky about certain items of food, but Jane would eat anything so long as it was put in front of her, cut into pieces so that she could carry on doing her equations while she was eating it.   
  
“Katz’s?” Jane asked, her tone a little hopeful, if Darcy went to Katz’s then she had to pass a few really good stores for snacks on the way back.   
  
“Of course, it’s Friday!  I’m hungry, though, so hurry up.”  She made a point of checking her watch.   
  
“Corned beef and extra honey mustard,” she said without overthinking it.  “And I know you pass the market on your way, can you pick up some more chocolate chip cookie dough Pop Tarts?”  Jane turned back to her board and continued to scribble her thoughts, one equation overlapping the next only slightly.   
  
“Okay, I’ll be back in an hour, don’t forget the water is on your desk.  I want it to be all gone when I get back.”     
  
“I know,” Jane replied, “I promise I won’t forget.”   
  
Darcy headed down to Tony’s lab to get his order, she knew he would never forgive her if she went on a Katz’s Deli run and didn’t ask him what he wanted.  She walked into the lab just as he was finishing a call, “I’ll see you in a minute, Capsicle, my lab, 67th floor.”  He hung up and looked at her expectantly.   
  
“Tony, deli run.  Want anything?  And have you finished playing with my cellphone yet?”   
  
“You’ve been asking me this for over a week, Lewis, no I haven’t, and pastrami and beef on rye with extra mustard and mayo.”     
  
Darcy tried hard to hide the grimace at his willing destruction of a classic sandwich with mayo, simply holding her hand out so that he could give her some cash to cover part of the bill.  Tony was many things, narcissistic, and a little bit insane, among them, but he was also incredibly generous and she was never going to deny him the right to pay for things.   
  
Stuffing the notes into the back pocket of her jeans, she headed to the bank of elevators and pushed the button.  Just as one arrived and the doors slid open she heard the ‘ding’ letting her know that the other elevator had arrived, she looked through the gap as the door closed and wrinkled her brow slightly.  She could swear those shoulders were familiar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget I occasionally post Easter Eggs on my [Tumblr](http://iantheswriting.tumblr.com/) as well as loads of pretty pictures and reblogs from some amazing authors on here...come and join me if you haven't already.


	4. Drunken surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bombshells are dropped and discoveries made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to say thanks (and so do you for the extra words) to my fabulous beta Palmetto Blue who writes the most amazing Harmony (Harry Potter) fic.

“Just the person I wanted to see,” Helen called across the lobby when she noticed Darcy walking into the building juggling a few takeout cups and a large brown paper bag.  The smell of warm pastrami filled her nostrils as Darcy headed over.  “Can you come down to the med-lab when you’ve finished the lunch run?”   
  
“Sure,” Darcy said, “Is everything okay?”  Her voice lifted a whole octave at the end of her question even though she was doing her best not to sound in any way nervous.   
  
“Everything’s fine, I promise.  Perhaps afterwards we can talk about that cocktail night you promised last week.”  Helen patted  Darcy on the shoulder.  “I promise everything is absolutely fine.”     
  
“Okay, if you say so.  I’m trusting that you wouldn’t lie to a friend.”  She leaned in a little closer, still juggling the coffees on the disposable tray in one hand.  “Janey told me that Captain America is in the house.  Have you seen him yet?”   
  
Helen grinned and shook her head, “I bet I’ll see him before you though - he is supposed to come in for a check-up every few weeks, and it’s been months since he was in the Tower.”  They both walked towards the bank of elevators, Helen had obviously just come back from lunch in the canteen if the small tomato stain on her lapel was anything to go by.   
  
“Yeah, well we’ll see about that,” Darcy responded, grinning when she thought about the flash of wide (and somewhat familiar) shoulder she had seen just as she headed out on the lunch run, part of her wished she’d had a chance to see more, but then she’d been in a hurry, food and science wait for no man, and they certainly wouldn’t wait for her to have a chance to ogle the most patriotic abs on the planet!   
  
~*~   
  
Steve sat at the far end of the lab watching as Tony made yet another adjustment to the magnetic strips that he said would revolutionise his uniform even more than it was already - apparently the stronger magnets had been fine-tuned to repel anything  _ but _ the small magnets that had been placed in various places on the back of his shield.  “So, let me get this straight...even if there is another strong magnetic force somewhere it won’t interfere with this and my shield will  _ always _ return?”  Steve asked, wondering how these magnets could possibly work, somehow it didn’t seem at all feasible.   
  
“Why don’t you go over there and play with the mock-up I made while you were away.  It might give you a better idea how it works.  It’s sort of like Thor and that hammer of his, though not quite,” Tony told him with a grin on his face.  It wasn’t at all like Mjӧlnir, there were no magic summoning words, the only reason it worked was because of science, and magnets; lots of magnets!   
  
With his back to the door, Steve started to play with the pretend shield and the gauntlet that Tony had designed, it certainly felt light on his arm; wouldn’t give him any issues or get in the way when he was fighting - which was important.  He flexed his hand and watched, surprised as the fake shield came towards him, though it moved just a little bit too fast and slammed against his forehead when he lifted his arm to guard his face.    
  
“Hey Tony, here’s that fake New York sandwich you had me get.  I swear every time I ask for it they look at me like I am desecrating someone’s memory!”  Darcy dumped the sandwich and coffee down on the workbench and turned to head out of the office.   
  
“Thanks Lewis, you know you love me and my sandwiches really,” Tony called as she headed back out of the lab.   
  
“You know I don’t.  I swear one day I’ll get you a proper pastrami on rye and you’ll never eat that stuff again,” Darcy responded as she pressed the button to close the lab door behind her.   
  
Steve looked up as he heard a muffled voice he swore was familiar, but there was no way that was possible.  Looking across the lab and seeing that Tony was occupied stuffing his face with something Steve swore smelled very much like pastrami and corned beef (though why anyone would eat those together he didn’t know), he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and scrolled through the phone until he found Darcy’s number and pressed ‘dial.’     
  
He listened for a few moments and groaned when it went through to voicemail; “Hi, this is Darcy, sorry I’m way too busy right now, leave a message and I promise at some point I’ll get back to you.  If this is mom then I promise I’m eating properly.”     
  
He chuckled at the message and then spoke, “Hey Darce, sorry I didn’t call before now, real sorry I left when I did.  Hope you’re okay.  Would love to catch up...Oh, this is Steve by the way.”  He hung up and headed to the front of the lab, unable to hide his amusement when he noticed that Tony had managed to get a smear of mustard and mayo on the neckline of his shirt.  Whoever that girl was she had it right; mayo had no place in a pastrami sandwich!   
  
~*~   
  
“Okay Dr Lady, I am here.  What’s so bad that I had to head down here instead of getting on with my work?”  Darcy dropped her bag on the floor and slumped in the seat opposite Helen’s desk.  “I have half a pastrami in Jane’s lab with my name on it and I’m hoping I won’t have to nuke it to eat it warm.”   
  
“Hate to break it to you but it’s probably already cold,” Helen told her, a smile in her voice.  “I just have a few questions for you and then I can tell you what I found.  I promised it was nothing bad and I am sticking to that.”   
  
“You know I don’t keep secrets too well, so fire away, I’m an open book.”  She pulled a pen from the pot on Helen’s desk and started to twirl it around in her hand as the doctor looked over her papers and seemed to be trying to figure out what to say first.   
  
“Okay, so I guess I’ll get right down to it then.  What do you know about your father?”   
  
Okay, that was a bit out of left field.  Darcy sucked her full top lip into her mouth as she considered how to answer the question.  On the one hand it appeared Helen obviously knew something, but the real question was did she actually want to know?  “I know that he and my mom hooked up at a party during spring break and nine months later I appeared, never really given it that much thought to be honest.”   
  
“Okay.  So if I told you that your DNA has a match in the system you wouldn’t be freaked out?”  Being honest, it had been a bit of a surprise to Helen when she’d run the tests and the match had popped up; she’d even run the test a second time on different equipment, just to make sure she hadn’t made a mistake.   
  
“It doesn’t really matter,” she shrugged.  “So long as it’s not Captain America, that would totally put a screwdriver in the idea of me getting in his super-tight super-suit.”   
  
Helen couldn’t help it; she laughed.  For some reason, even when presented with something potentially life-changing she was still thinking about her strange obsession with Captain America and finding out what he was wearing underneath that incredibly tight suit.  “Well, as I said, when we tested your sample it matched someone else in the system.  I know it’s not important, but I felt that you should know that you’ve essentially been babysitting for your dad for the last four months.”   
  
“Babysitting?” Darcy thought about the people in the lab that she looked after on a daily basis and quickly eliminated most of them as having been  _ way _ too young, or too female, to be her father,  which just left… “Are you telling me that Tony or Bruce is my dad?”  Darcy would’ve laughed, but the idea was just so off the wall that all she could do was stare at Helen with her mouth open in shock.  “No way!”   
  
“Tony’s your dad, at least genetically speaking.  I’m not allowed to tell anyone else about this, and wouldn’t anyway, but you might want to speak to Tony at some point, though.  Ripping off the band-aid and getting it done quickly is often best.”   
  
The thought that Tony was her dad was enough to cause Darcy to fling her head back and start laughing almost hysterically.  For a few moments Helen worried that she would actually have to slap her friend to stop the laughter, but then Darcy calmed and looked at her across the desk.  “I am sure that I have a few brothers and sisters out there somewhere, he was a bit of a playboy...oh this is just pure gold.  I’ve been babysitting my dad, talk about role reversal!”  She grinned as she picked her bag up from the floor.  “So, about that drink?”   
  
“Are you okay?  Do you want to talk about it?”     
  
“I’m actually fine,” Darcy said, slowly, her tone positive and surprisingly confident.  “Why don’t we talk about it tonight?  Janey’s all about trying the Bar Pleiades, I think it’s because of the name, and their cocktail menu looks really different.”   
  
“Okay, usual time?” Helen asked as she handed Darcy a copy of the papers just in case she wanted them and walked with her to the door.   
  
“I would say earlier but I know Jane, she’ll be working ‘til the last minute and it will be difficult to get her away from her machines, even if there is a good champagne cocktail in her future.”   
  
“In that case I’ll see you and Jane at 7.30 in the lobby.  I’ve heard good things about the cocktails at Pleiades!”   
  
“We can use this as an excuse to celebrate the fact that it’s Friday, Captain America is in da house and there’s no work tomorrow.”   
  
“Oh my God Darcy, you seriously need to get that obsession under control.”  Helen laughed as Darcy left the med-bay and headed over to the stairs.  “See you later.”   
  
Darcy took her time walking up the three flights of stairs to the labs; for all that she had acted as though it didn’t mean anything, finding out that the dad she hadn’t given any thought to since she was a rebellious 13-year-old was a billionaire who had spent the majority of his life playing sex games with playboy bunnies and  _ Sports Illustrated _ models was a bit of a shock.     
  
She sucked in a deep breath before she pushed open the door to the lab floor; the few moments alone had been enough to pull herself together, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t fall apart at a later point.  “Janey,” she shouted over the noise of Jane bashing at one of her machines with a wrench as she walked into Jane’s lab space.  “We’re all going to that bar you wanted to try out tonight so no plans to work late.”   
  
“Huh?”  Jane asked as she pushed herself up from the floor.  “Tonight?  But I have all this work that needs doing.”   
  
“And it can wait until Sunday, or even better, Monday.  The machines aren’t going to go anywhere.”  Darcy told her, then, “I’m just popping over to get my phone back, I’m not going to let Tony hold it hostage any longer purely because of some imaginary war with Steve Jobs that happened years ago.”   
  
“Tell him to leave my machines alone if you get a chance; he keeps on coming in here when I’m doing other stuff and changing things.”  Jane declared, already moving underneath another of the beeping machines to fiddle with the internal wiring a little bit more.   
  
~*~   
  
“Stark, if you don’t give me my cellphone back I’m telling Pepper that you make a habit of stealing stuff.”   
  
“Ahh, Lewis.  You’re a breath of fresh air,” he pulled open the drawer in his tool cabinet and held the phone up.  “Why should I give you this inferior piece of tech back?”   
  
“Because it’s mine and I happen to like it?” Darcy replied, reaching up to grab it from him but missing when he held the phone just slightly out of her reach.   
  
“The stuff I make is so much better.  And this has to be at least three years old.  Ancient!”  He bopped her on the head with it then held it out of her reach again, sighing.  “Oh well, the battery died so it’s no use to me anymore.”  Reluctantly he handed it back to her.  “Seriously though, the tech I make is much better than this, and even better, I give free updates.”   
  
“Yes,” Darcy said, hugging the phone to her chest and smirking, “It might look really snazzy,” she looked at the rather battered prototype that Tony seemed reluctant to get rid of on his bench.  “But you don’t have loads of apps available for download and I can’t get a case with puppy ears for it either.”   
  
“I could have apps if I wanted,” Tony told her, his tone a little disgruntled.  “There’s nothing wrong with having no apps, it’s a phone and it has loads of other cool stuff on it.”   
  
Rolling her eyes Darcy handed him the papers that Helen had given her; she didn’t really want them, but felt that it would be wrong to keep something this big a secret from him, especially as she actually worked for him now.  “Here, you might want to read those with a glass or two of something at least 80 proof!”  Before he had a chance to look at what she’d just handed over, she escaped and headed back to Jane’s lab with every intention of calling an early halt to science for the day; perhaps they could spend the rest of the afternoon prettifying themselves in readiness for their evening of classy cocktails, she also needed to get her phone charging as soon as possible, who knew how many Tumblr notifications she’d already missed!   
  
“Come on boss lady,” Darcy told her as she walked back into the lab, “We’re packing up for the day.  I need to charge my phone like right now and I think you’ve done enough for the day,” she looked at the notes on the boards and the few pieces of equipment that were covered in fresh pieces of duct tape and dents from the wrench that was still in Jane’s hand.   
  
~*~   
  
The moment Darcy got to Jane’s apartment she searched through the small pile of stuff in her bag and quickly plugged her phone in to charge.  The minute it started to power up the ringing started, and it didn’t stop for a good three minutes.  The screen flared to life and Darcy found herself looking at a lock screen with 54 unread messages, 23 missed calls and 984 Tumblr notifications on it.  She’d been posting stuff on her laptop since she’d lost custody of the phone but without access to the thing there was no way to turn anything off.     
  
“Oh crap, this is going to take hours,” she muttered as she started scrolling through the texts, ignoring the ones that told her she had missed calls from various numbers, and quickly replying with apologies to the ones people thought she’d been ignoring.  Luckily a large number of her missed calls were from Jane, or her mom, both of which could be ignored for the moment; she saw one everyday, she called the other at least three times a week, and then there was the most recent call; it was from Steve.  Fighting the urge to giggle like a girl with her first crush she resisted the need to actually call him back right away.  She listened to the message a few times before dialling her mom’s number, because she knew her mom. Helen would be pissed if she found out later that Darcy had got her phone back and didn’t let her know.  “Seventeen calls to my cell, mom?  A stranger would think I was an ungrateful child who never called her mother!”   
  
“If that’s your mom, tell her I said hi,” Jane yelled from the bathroom, voice muffled by the closed door.   
  
“Oh, Jane says hi.”  Darcy obediently repeated before telling her mom that she’d finally managed to persuade Tony to give her phone back, even though it was only reluctantly returned because the battery had run out!   
  
After ten minutes of listening to local town gossip; apparently the newly appointed hairdresser was having an affair with one of the men who had opened a bar just outside town, and one of the girls Darcy’d been at school with was getting married, which started a whole other conversation about Darcy’s lack of a vibrant love life, “I know you really liked this guy, sweetie, but it was just a summer thing, you need to go out there and find someone else, or a lot of someone elses.  Bet there are a few in that lab of yours.”   
  
Thinking about the men in her lab brought Darcy back around to the thing that she was trying to forget for the time being, namely Tony Stark being her biological dad.  Shaking off the thought she finally said, “Mom, I love you but I’ve got to go, we’re all going out tonight and if I don’t get in the shower soon Jane’s going to be ready before me, and that  _ never _ happens.” She knew that she’d have to say something to her mom about Tony at some point, but she needed to figure out how she felt about it all first.  She made sure that she kept the conversation light because the last thing she wanted or needed was Helen Lewis thinking she was upset and getting on the first plane from Iowa to cause any mayhem.   
  
She hung up quickly and headed to the en suite connected to her room, determined to get ready as quickly as possible, she might even be able to make sure that Jane was ready early enough that they could get a bit of pre-drinking done, she’d definitely earned it.    
  
~*~   
  
It was nearly 2am when the three girls finally staggered back into the building, a little worse for wear but giggling happily.  They’d managed, somehow, to book an Uber to get them back to the tower, and they all arrived in one piece, “No hackings for us,” Darcy declared rather loudly, her arm lifting and falling rapidly as she tried to act out the shower scene from  _ Psycho _ .  With a bit of support from her friends standing either side of her, the trio walked through the deserted lobby and headed over to the bank of elevators back to the residential floor.   
  
“Come on Darce, you need some water, and then you need your bed.” Jane told her, tugging her up slightly and leaning her against the back of the elevator while Helen pressed the button for the common room floor; they probably all needed some water and perhaps something from the hangover medicine cabinet that everyone knew Tony kept in the bar.   
  
Tony was lounging on the long couch looking out the window, a glass of amber whiskey dangling from one hand.  It was obvious, from the half empty bottle on the floor that he’d been drinking for a while.  The moment he saw the trio of girls enter the room he stood up and walked carefully over to them.  "I had to find out by reading a piece of paper, Lewis..."  He stated, his tone relatively clear for someone who’d taken Darcy’s advice and been drinking.   
  
“Hey!  At least you got to read the results with a glass of  _ Johnnie Walker _ Platinum. I got the news stone cold sober!"  Darcy’s tone was jolly and her words were only a little bit slurred.   
  
“I’ll have you know it was  _ Johnnie Walker  _ Blue….but anyway, stop trying to distract me.  What the hell, Lewis.  I can’t be a father!”   
  
“O.M.G, Stark.  You make it sound like you knocked me up or something, that’s gross!  I’m not asking you for anything.”   
  
Darcy dropped down onto the couch and held a hand out for the glass of water that Jane handed her, along with a couple of aspirin, “thank you,” she mumbled, knocking the pills back quickly before turning her attention back to Tony.  “I promise I am not going to start calling you Daddy and telling you how upset I am that you didn’t ever visit me or something.”  Darcy held up one hand and gave a facsimile of a girl scout salute, though it fell a bit flat when she fell back against the armrest.   
  
“O...kay?”  Tony sounded as though he wasn’t sure where this conversation was leading, and that was something of a first for him; normally he was the one talking circles around others.  “Oh...Cap,” he called, suddenly distracted by the sight of Steve walking into the common room and coming to a halt just in the doorway.  "Cap, have you met my daughter? I only found out she was mine today. Lewis, this is Capsicle."   
  
Darcy stared, unable to say anything at all.     
  
Steve, however, wasn’t cursed the same way.  “Darcy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta Da! Ooooh, what's going to happen next? I love the slow burn. I have half-started the next chapter already and there will be a preview snippet posted on my [Tumblr](http://iantheswriting.tumblr.com) account this week.


	5. Shock...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A continuation of chapter four; poor Darcy has been through so much in one day that it's not surprising she's had a little bit too much to drink and now she has to contend with Tony being his usual self and a stunned Steve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this is late; thank my beta that I managed to get a chapter out at all this week. I've had a few shocks of my own and seriously needed to escape. So thanks again to my beta Palmetto Blue.

_"Cap, have you met my daughter? I only found out she was mine today. Lewis, this is Capsicle."_  
  
_Darcy stared, unable to say anything at all._  
_  
_ Steve, however, wasn’t cursed the same way.  “Darcy?”

  
“I should’a known,” Tony almost yelled, not giving Darcy a moment to react.  “I just found her and you already know her.  You just can’t stay away from Starks, Cap, it’s almost an obsession.”  Tony pointed one slightly unsteady accusatory finger in Steve’s direction, but the blond wasn’t really paying attention, focused completely on Darcy’s surprise presence in the building.  
  
“That’s not it at all, Tony, I…” Steve started in an attempt to defend himself, only to be interrupted when Darcy sat up, as if realising that she really needed to say something.  
  
“Wha?” Darcy asked, still a little confused, and incredibly astounded, at the sudden turn of events.  Seeing Steve here was a surprise, not that it wasn’t a pleasant one, because she’d been dreaming about seeing him again for what felt like an age.  However, discovering Steve was Captain America was a shock of such huge proportions it almost stunned her into silence.  “Steve?   _You’re_ Captain America?”  She took a large gulp of water from the glass and then held it in numb fingers, simply staring up at him, her eyes a little glazed over from the combination of shock and drink.  “Oh my God, _you’re_ Captain America!” she repeated, the realisation one that had her wishing that the water was something much stronger even as she took another sip, finishing it.  Glass empty, she placed it down on the very edge of the coffee table watched as it slipped off the edge onto the marble floor, splintering into crystalline shards.  She then stood up, walking on unsteady legs across the room to the bar.  “I think I need a real drink!”  She declared, noisily opened the cupboard under the sleek bar and getting out another glass, ignoring the musical clink it made as she set it down on the marble worktop.  
  
“Fruit of my loins you aren’t touching the good stuff, I’ve seen the way you drink, it’d be a complete waste,”  Tony called over to her, lifting his glass to his lips before realising it was already empty.  He placed the cut crystal down on the nearest flat surface, and then went to get the nearly empty bottle from the coffee table.  
  
“Ew, don’t call me that!  I’m not the fruit of anyone’s anything.” She exclaimed, horrified. .  “And as for that _stuff_ you call the ‘good stuff,’ I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, Tony,” Darcy informed him, her voice decidedly clear for someone who’d been drinking cocktails for hours.  She held up a rather expensive bottle of vodka he kept in stock for Natasha to show him she wasn’t going for his precious (and disgusting, if you asked her) whiskey.  “Anyway, it smells burnt and makes my tongue feel fuzzy in the morning.  This is so much better.”  Darcy knew that she was babbling, but she was doing everything she could in order to diffuse the tension she could feel building in the room.  She was unsure about what exactly was happening; Tony was her dad, this she knew. Steve was her summer fling, this she also knew, but the two together in one room was more than her drunk brain could cope with right now.  Part of her wanted to take the bottle of vodka she was currently grasping like a lifeline, and head back to her own room.  Oh to be anywhere but where she was right now!  
  
Jane had been standing with Helen, they’d both been watching everything unfold from the sidelines, like spectators at a tennis match, but seeing the frustrated tears forming in Darcy’s  eyes, she knew that she had to step in, and Helen knew that she had to leave; hearing all about the summer fling over amazing cocktails was one thing, meeting that summer fling, realising he was Captain-freaking-America, and having to deal with a newly-discovered drunk father all while tipsy was something else altogether!  
  
Jane walked over to the bar and took the bottle from Darcy’s hands before she could drop it.  “Here,” she said, unscrewing the lid and moving the glass a little closer, “let me.”  Pouring a small measure of vodka into the glass, she topped it up with diet Coke - exactly how Darcy drank it when she was mixing drinks for herself, and handed the glass over. Darcy accepted it as quickly as she could, feeling a little desperate, and took a healthy sip before putting it down and hopping, as gracefully as was possible when she was wearing heels and a skirt that was just that little bit too short, onto one of the tall bar stools.  “So, who wants to go first?” she asked, sounding far more confident than she was actually feeling.  
  
“I would love to hear what Cap has to say,” Tony contributed, heading over to the bar to replenish his own glass, and doing a much more efficient job than Darcy had managed before Jane had stepped in.  “Were you playing fun games over the summer with my little girl, Capsicle?”  
  
“Tony!” Darcy almost screeched, horrified.  “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but you can hardly pretend to be the doting dad; you only just found out that we’re even related.”  Darcy recognised that light of mischief in his eyes, she’d seen it far too often over the last few months to feel comfortable letting him do whatever it was he was planning.  
  
“Oh, so you _were_ playing games over the summer?”  Tony asked, suddenly realising that neither of them had denied his earlier accusation.  
  
“And that is absolutely none of your business,” Darcy informed him, glaring in his direction as she struggled to get off the bar stool; she was going to stop whatever was about to happen before it started.  She caught her heel on the foot rest and stumbled forward a little but when Steve moved closer to give her a hand she slapped it away, “Thanks, really, but I can do it by myself,” she stated, her tone determined.  “I am not some helpless little princess who needs rescuing!”  
  
Realising that she was on a roll, Steve raised his hands in a sign of surrender and took a step away.  “Okay…”  
  
“Yeah, Cap, she’s perfectly capable, she’s a Stark!” Tony stated, determined that he wasn’t going to be ignored.  
  
“Perhaps we should leave them alone to talk,” Jane interjected, wrapping a surprisingly strong hand around Tony’s wrist, the tension in the room was at a point that even Jane - who was oblivious the majority of the time - had sensed it.  
  
“I’d rather stick around, I’m allowed to know everything that goes on in my building,” Tony told her, attempting to resist, and discovering, to his surprise, that he was fighting a losing battle.  “You know, for such a small person you’re really very strong,” he told her as she hustled him out of the common room and down the hall.  She completely ignored any further protests he was making and dragged him in the direction of the elevators. “Hey, hands off the suit, it cost more than half of the equipment you have in your lab,” he whined, words a bit slurred. “And don’t make me spill my drink!” He brought the Baccarat glass to his lips and gulped half its contents.  
  
Darcy and Steve watched them go, bemused at the sight of tiny Jane Foster manhandling Iron Man.  
  
“So…” Darcy started, suddenly feeling awkward and unsure of herself.  She walked across from the bar on slightly unsteady feet, and sat down on the edge of the large couch, twisting the hem of her skirt between her fingers.  
  
“So…” Steve said, dropping down onto the chair opposite and studying her; he couldn’t believe that she was actually here, in the building, close enough to touch, especially after all the dreaming he’d done about her over the last few months!  “How are you?” He asked, then immediately wished that he could take the words back when he realised how lame they sounded to his own ears.  
  
“I’m good,” she told him, finally lifting her head to meet his gaze.  “You look...different.”  Seeing him clean-shaven with his hair slicked back away from his face she barely recognised him as the man she had spent the summer getting to know rather intimately.  Looking like this, smart and clean-cut, it was difficult to equate him with the man who had seduced her into losing her virginity under that tree.  
  
“Not too different,” he told her, leaning forward to stroke a finger along the line of her jaw, barely resisting the urge to kiss her.  He was still so stunned that she was sitting with him right now that he felt a little bit tongue-tied, and would much prefer to show her how he was feeling than tell her.  
  
“No,” she said, leaning back.  “You can’t do that.”  She knew that if she let him touch her then she would just turn into a puddle of goo and she couldn’t let that happen.  
  
Pulling away like he’d been burned, he looked down at his hands and wondered what he could do to change things.  To be honest, when he’d left Darcy’s bed in Iowa he hadn’t considered what would happen if he ever bumped into her again, and this lack of planning when he always planned for every eventuality, made him feel a little uncomfortable.  “I did call,” he finally uttered, looking up and realising that she was watching him.  “I did think about you.”  
  
“I lost my phone…” she said, a half smile on her face when she thought about the voicemail he’d left that had caused her to giggle like an over-excited teen the moment she’d heard it.  “Well actually, Tony stole my phone.”  
  
Grinning, Steve nodded in understanding, “he does have a big thing about his technology.  I’m lucky I can remember numbers.”  Steve had watched, rather dismayed when Tony had very quickly taken his old Nokia and told him that it wasn’t needed now that he had a brand new _StarkPhone_ to play with.  He brushed his hair back from his forehead, a nervous habit from his pre-serum days, and one she’d seen him repeat several times during their time together.  
  
“So…” Darcy started, not entirely sure of what she wanted to say, but sure she needed to say something.  
  
“What…” Steve said at exactly the same time.  “No,” he told her when she looked to be waiting for him to continue.  “You can go first.”  
  
“I was just going to ask if you were okay.  I mean, you left in such a rush I wanted to make sure, you know…”  She wasn’t quite sure how to continue, feeling a little awkward about asking exactly why he’d left as though the hounds of hell were at his heels or something.  
  
“Oh…”  He wasn’t quite sure how he could answer that, not without throwing someone else under the proverbial bus.  “I had to do something, and there was no way I could get out of it.”  He didn’t want to go into the ins and outs of his fruitless search for Bucky, not right now.  There were so many other things he would far prefer to be doing, and every single one of them had been turning around in his head for the last couple of months, his showers had been both heaven and hell in those awful little hotel rooms.  
  
“Is that all?” she finally said after what felt like an eternity.  “You could’ve left a note, or sent a text, or something?”    
  
Now these seemed like logical actions, but when he’d thought he wouldn’t see her again it’d felt right to cut ties cleanly, say nothing and just leave.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t think.”  He leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees and moved to press a kiss to her cheek.  At the last minute she turned her face and then his lips brushed against hers.  It was as good as Darcy remembered.  She shifted forward on the couch and lifted her hands to curl one over his shoulder and the other cupping his jaw.    
  
“Shut up,” she told him, then moved closer for another kiss, this one more intense, her full lips parting as Steve covered her mouth completely, his tongue stroking against the roof of her mouth before rubbing against hers and tugging her from the couch onto his lap.  
  
“Walk me back to my room?” she asked as she pulled away, wiping a finger across the smears of red lipstick on Steve’s upper lip.  
  
“It would be my pleasure,” he replied, standing up and grasping her small hand tightly in his larger one.  
  
It took them very little time at all to reach Jane’s room just a few floors below, and Steve was reluctant when she pressed her thumb to the entry pad and the door opened with a quiet _snick_ .  “I’m not going to ask you in for coffee,” she told him, walking through the door and turning to look at him again.  
  
He attempted not to look disappointed, but it was hard going when all he could think about was the ache in his pants and the memory of the summer.  “Not even a glass of water?”  
  
“Not even a glass of water,” she confirmed, grinning at the expression on his face.  
  
“Will you go on a date with me tomorrow?” he asked her, his tone hopeful, his foot in the door preventing her from closing it before she answered.  
  
“Plan on taking me somewhere nice,” she told him, pushing his foot out of the way with the toe of her shoe before closing the apartment door and then heading to her bedroom to sleep off the day.


	6. Damsel in a Dress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after the night before. Darcy is suffering a hangover, the labs are unsafe and dress-shopping is hell!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you thought I'd forgotten this story...I hadn't (as you can see). So sorry it's taken so long (apology and explanation at the bottom). I'd like to thank my cheerleader Sally (@palmetto-blue) for helping me, reading through it, and putting up with the constant word-counting...

‘Hangovers are an absolute bitch,’ was the first thought that entered Darcy’s mind when the blinds in her room started to automatically open, letting in far more sunlight than she wanted to see when she felt like crap.  She rolled over and, groaning, buried her face in her pillow to block out the light, and then the phone on her nightstand started to ring.  “Nooo,” she moaned, stretching one hand out from under the covers to pick it up.  “‘Lo?” she answered, her voice was rough and gravelly with sleep and over-indulgence.   
  
“Why are you not here yet?” Jane asked, sounding far too alert for someone who’d had just as much to drink as everyone else on their night out.   
  
“How are you not hungover, Janey?” Darcy asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes with the back of her free hand.   
  
“Good living,” Jane answered, a smile in her voice.  “Nothing but good living.”  To Darcy’s ears she sounded just that little bit too smug.   
  
“Right now I could really hate you if I didn’t feel so shitty,” Darcy informed her as she shuffled to the end of the bed and stood up, heading into the bathroom.   
  
“Can you bring me a coffee?” Jane’s tone could be called whiny, if Darcy were ever inclined to be mean; right now, though, all she wanted was a caffeine IV and some very strong painkillers, and for someone to turn off the sun for a few more hours!   
  
“I’ll be there in thirty,” Darcy promised before hanging up and putting the phone down on the shelf above the basin.  “Oh my God,” she griped, her tone just the wrong side of moany teenager, “I look like absolute shit.”  She studied her reflection for a moment in the mirror, pulling at the purple-grey bags under her eyes, and pinching her pale cheeks to get some colour back into her face.  “FRIDAY, can you turn on the shower?” she called as she stripped off her vest top and panties and tied her hair back in a messy bun.  She didn’t have long, but she was at least not going to go to the labs smelling as though her breath and skin could ignite!   
  
Having brushed a little blush on her cheeks so she no longer looked sickly pale, she pulled on a pair of her ‘I really can’t be bothered today’ jeans, and a chunky sweater with a picture of an ice skating penguin on the front, and, after picking up her tote, keys, glasses and wallet, rushed out of the apartment to the bank of elevators.   
  
Darcy was relieved that the elevator, when it arrived, was empty.  After pressing the button for the ground floor, she leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, willing her headache away.   
  
A quick walk through the lobby and she was at the general staff canteen.  SI staff got the best breakfast bar, and after ten on a Saturday it was very empty, yet the chef was still there waiting, just in case.  On the weekends it was mostly the insanely focused staff on the 23rd floor, the over-eager researchers who tended to come in for a bagel or a freshly-brewed coffee, but Darcy wasn’t going to complain as it meant she was able to get something whenever she wanted, without any trouble.  The smell of fresh-baked pastries and extra-strong coffee gave her cause to smile, and she made quick work of piling two dinner plates with croissants and pain au chocolat before heading over to the shiny state-of-the-art coffee machine.  Standing in front of it for a moment she couldn’t help but admire Tony’s work; he was nothing if not dedicated to ensuring that his staff not only had the best of the best of everything, but that he had the patent!  She made quick work of getting a double-shot espresso to drink on her way down to Jane’s lab in the basement, and then programmed in the request for two strong black Americanos.   
  
Leaving the canteen, she headed back to the elevators, and got in the first one that arrived, mentally groaning when she noticed that not only was she  _ not _ alone, but Steve was the other person occupying the space.   
  
“Darcy,” he said, his voice quiet as though he realised that she was feeling a little the worse for wear.   
  
Sucking in a deep breath she wished that she’d taken the stairs.  She’d almost made it from the apartment to the labs without having to think about, or remember, everything that’d happened the night before, after they’d got back from the bar.  She considered pretending that she was listening to music, but then realised that not only had she left her earbuds in her purse, but that she couldn’t ignore him forever.   
  
“Morning, Steve.”  She couldn’t help but look him up and down as he leaned back against the wall, his hands in his pockets and one foot up on the wall; the pose accentuated the muscles of his thighs and the bulge of his pecs under his much-too-tight shirt.  “You’re looking very…” she paused to check him out again, taking in the sweat trickling down the side of his face and the way his hair was spiked from, she assumed, him running his fingers through it, and she couldn’t help but remember gripping his hair in her own fingers as he kissed his way down her stomach and between her thighs.  She shook her head to clear it of the image and took a sip of her espresso as a distraction.  “...healthy.”   
  
“How’re you?  You look like you had a…” he paused to consider his words, “very good time last night.”  He reached a hand out to tuck a tendril of hair behind her ear, but withdrew at the last second, unsure of how welcome the gesture would be.   
  
“I’ll never learn,” she joked in reply.  “Really sorry I ran out on you like that, but drunken rambling isn’t exactly the best way to get anything sensible out of me.”  As if realising that she was rambling right then, and probably making very little sense, she finished her espresso and mentally sighed in relief when the elevator stopped and the doors opened on her floor.  “Anyway, Jane’s caffeine addiction waits for no one.  It’s great seeing you.”  She raised her hand in a brief wave as she left the elevator and walked around the corner to the lab security desk.  “Morning Charlie.  Did you have a good day off?”  Darcy put the coffees down and pulled a book of Sudoku puzzles from her tote and placed it on Charlie’s desk.  “I’ve only done the easy ones...figured you’d have better luck with them than me.”   
  
“Well, you know how I like a challenge,” Charlie told her as he pulled a pen from the drawer beneath his desk and opened the book, flipping through until he found one that looked as though it would take a while.   
  
“Enjoy,” Darcy told him as she picked up the cups and headed through the metal detector archway and over to Jane’s lab; hopefully she’d be in time to prevent her friend from doing something that could possibly open up a wormhole to something, or somewhere not very nice.   
  
“Here you go, Janey,” she said, placing the steaming takeout cup by Jane’s elbow.  “Drink it while it’s still hot.”   
  
Having delivered the life-saving elixir, Darcy sat down in front of her computer and booted it up.  If she had to keep Jane company while the virago did science stuff, mostly to prevent her from doing anything too dangerous, then she was going to do something she considered productive.  Of course, it being a Saturday that was  _ not _ going to be anything truly work related.  Being in the lab also gave her the perfect excuse to avoid people she’d rather not speak to, or do things - like call her mum - that she’d rather not do.   
  
“Hello my wonderful friend,” she muttered under her breath, aware that Jane’s rules when she was working included not speaking loudly enough to distract her unless it was about coffee or a machine that looked as though it was about to explode.  The Tumblr login page loaded on her screen, and her username/password combination auto-populated.   
  
Five hours later Darcy had read through every meme, political rant, personal announcement (mostly from people she only knew by username), movie review, and throwback post on her dashboard, and had started reading the latest update to a Destiel fic by her favourite author, when one of the hazardous materials alerts started to go off in a nearby laboratory.   
  
She took less than a minute to lock her screen; she knew that pages accessed by any machine in the building could easily be traced, but that didn’t mean she wanted anyone coming into the lab to find out her guilty pleasure, and then ushered Jane in the general direction of the quarantine chamber.  When he’d first set up the labs and invited all manner of scientists to _ play _ there, Tony’d set up two large airtight chambers on the laboratory levels just in case things like this happened; they did tend to, although, luckily, not too often.     
  
“My papers - ” Jane panicked when she realised that she’d left her research in the lab where it could be damaged by the cleansing system which ran through whenever there was a quarantine situation.  “I left them on the desk.” She attempted to push past her colleagues, but couldn’t reach the door.   
  
Darcy, who was still steering nervous lab occupants into the chamber, heard her friend and, realising why Jane was in such a panic, estimated that she’d have enough time to make it there and back before the cleansing process commenced.  “I’ll be right back,” she yelled hoping she’d be heard over the people who really needed to find something better to do on a Saturday than head to work; hell, she’d much rather be on a couch nursing her hangover with Netflix and a pint of macadamia brittle ice cream.   
  
She rushed back into Jane’s lab to get the papers that the petite scientist had been working on - she really needed to get her friend into the habit of making notes on a tablet, at least that could be backed up on a secure server just in case of events like this - and got to the door just in time to watch it close and hear the airtight seals hiss.  Sliding down to the floor she tried not to panic as she heard the vacuums set up in each lab start to kick into gear.  “Fuck!” she muttered, furious with herself.  She hurriedly pulled out her Starkphone, realising that she didn’t have much time until the cleansing process commenced, and picked the first number on her contact list that might be of use in a situation like this.  Taking a calming breath, definitely needed, she tapped out a quick text:    
  
**Got myself in a bit of trouble.  Stuck in Jane’s lab, send help!** **  
** **  
** Stuck for something to do, and knowing that it really was a case of having to wait for a rescue like a damned damsel in distress, Darcy walked over to her desk, sat down and banged her head on the keyboard, ignoring the beeps as it protested the action.  “How the hell do I get myself into these things?”   
  
It felt like forever, but in reality, it was less than a few minutes before someone knocked on the glass.  She looked up and couldn’t help the smile of relief from crossing her face as she saw Steve standing on the other side of the wall of windows, his shield in one hand already poised to break through the glass.  He gave her the universal sign for ‘get down’ and waited only a few seconds for her to duck down behind her desk before he smashed the edge into the door to crack the airtight seal.   
  
A few more bashes of the shield into the door, and Steve was able to prise it open, filling the lab with some much-needed fresh air.  Relief flooded her, and Darcy wasted no time in rushing into the hallway.  “Steve, you’re a literal lifesaver.  Thanks.”  She gave him a tight one-armed hug, and then headed to the quarantine chamber to reassure Jane that she was okay.   
  
“Darcy,” Steve called, determined that she wasn’t just going to walk away; he could tell that she’d had an overload of information over the last few days, but he couldn’t forget the summer.  “Want to get a burger with me tonight?”  In a matter of seconds he had gone from assertive rescuer to hesitant suitor, but Darcy was so focused on the words and the fact that a small part of her had been wanting to hear them, that she didn’t hear the tone.   
  
“Seven thirty?” she asked, already pulling out her phone to have a look for burger places in Manhattan.   
  
“Seven thirty,” he agreed, only barely managing to refrain from pumping the air in triumph - he’d only known she was in the building for less than 24-hours, but the desire to spend time with her had only increased since then.  He’d honestly believed that she’d take longer to persuade to go on a date with him, but it’d actually been rather easy, thankfully.   
  
“I think that we should call it a day, Janey.  If the alarm wasn’t enough of a sign, then the fact I need to go shopping definitely is.”  Darcy handed Jane her research papers and picked up the backpack from her friend’s feet; she rarely went anywhere without it, though it would be more useful if she actually put stuff in it!  “Come on, I think that we need a break from the building.”   
  
“Shopping?” Jane asked, her voice a little distracted as she flicked through her papers while stuffing them into the bag.  “What’re we shopping for?”   
  
“Steve asked me out for burgers, and he’s already seen the only dress and fancy panties I own,” Darcy stated, a grin on her face at the prospect of having a really good reason for buying more pretty underwear.   
  
“Spawn of my loins, I don’t want to hear anything connecting Captain Ice Cube with your panties,” Tony interrupted, having headed down to the research floor after FRIDAY informed him that Darcy had been in the labs when the alarm went off.   
  
“So don’t listen,” Darcy told him, glancing down at her phone when it vibrated with a message alert:   
  
**Don’t forget the lacy bra I really liked.**   
  
A faint rose hue flushing her normally pale cheeks, she locked the screen and shoved the phone in her back pocket.  She knew the bra Steve meant; unfortunately, it had been a victim of their last energetic encounter before he left Iowa, and a frayed strap and snapped clasps meant that she could no longer wear it.  Guess that meant a trip to the nearest  _ Victoria’s Secret _ \- such a shame!  “You coming?” she asked Jane, who had again become distracted by an equation noted in the corner of one of the pages.  “The day’s a-wasting, Janey.”  Grabbing her friend by the wrist, though careful not to make her drop the notes that would only have to be sorted out later, Darcy pressed the button to call the elevators, and gently pushed her Jane inside when one arrived.  “Have a great day, Daddy-O,” she called to an open-mouthed Tony  who couldn’t believe that he’d been beaten in a snark competition, as the doors slid smoothly closed, and the car began its ascent to street level.   
  
Shopping was always fun, but it was definitely more fun when you had money.  The girls headed to Manhattan Mall, and right into  _ Victoria’s Secret _ .  Darcy knew that the bra Steve had liked so much was last season, but she also knew that there were bound to be more that could fit the bill, all she needed to do was find something lacy and pretty that hopefully didn’t pinch when she put it on.  It took a bit of time, and help from a really nice lady called Petra who, upon seeing the Stark Industries ID still clipped to Darcy’s jean pocket, couldn’t have been more accommodating, but they had found something lacy in blush and cream that came with matching French-cut panties.  Paying at the register, she’d managed not to wince as she’d swiped her card and then fiddled around, reversing it to use the new embedded chip; $120 and an hour later she had sexy underwear and a newfound respect for store staff who seriously knew their stock.   
  
Having looked in  what felt like every clothing store that the Manhattan Mall had to offer, Darcy realised that they were going to have to travel further afield, but not until she’d answered the call of a skinny chai latte and double chocolate brownie, and rested her feet.     
  
“I should’ve worn sneakers,” she declared as she sat down in a chair outside  _ Starbucks _ and loosened the straps on her shoes, sighing in relief as the pressure on her sore heels eased for a while.   
  
“You won’t have to worry about shoes for too long tonight,” Jane actually  _ giggled _ as she nudged Darcy with her shoulder.  “If the way Steve looked at you last night is anything to go by, you’ll be lucky if you leave the building for a burger.”   
  
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Darcy checked the clock on her phone and noticed that, in all the noise of the mall, she’d missed two calls from her mom and four texts from Tony.  She had no doubt that Tony’s were all going to be snarky remarks about her date with Steve, and things that he didn’t want to hear about, so she swiped right on all of them with a smirk.  The calls from her mom, however, they were a little more difficult to ignore. Her finger hovering over the call button for a few moments, she released a deep sigh, and then put the phone away.  Darcy was quickly becoming incredibly good at avoiding doing things that could be considered unpleasant.  She loved her mom, but the conversation she needed to have with her was one that she wanted to postpone for as long as possible.     
  
Standing up, Darcy drank the last of her chai in a single mouthful, then threw the cup into the recycle bin.  “C’mon, we need to find a store where the clothes don’t make me look like a preppy sailor, or a wannabe biker.” She’d actually loved the leather jackets, and the smell of them reminded her so clearly of burying her face in the curve of Steve’s neck as he’d stroked her to oblivion, but she couldn’t just buy clothes because they made her wet, she needed to buy something that she could wear again and look amazing enough to make a man speechless when he looked at her.   
  
_ Saks  _ was exactly what Darcy expected it to be.  Large, loud, busy and full of sales staff who stuck their noses up when they noticed what she was wearing.  She hustled Jane over in the direction of a display of dresses that didn’t look as though their price would break the bank, not that her bank balance was small any longer, thanks to the signing bonus Pepper had paid her, and told her “I want something pretty, but not so obvious that I he knows I am trying to impress.”  With those instructions, she started to look through another rack of dresses, determined that she would find something as she’d had enough of trying to find something to wear.   
  
She loved shopping, but right now Darcy wanted to do something, anything else.  This was getting ridiculous. She’d looked at twenty dresses if she’d looked at one. Growing frustrated, she looked over to where Jane was still searching through the racks, three dresses draped over her right arm and another one in her left hand as she studied it with the same intensity she put into researching the stars.     
  
“Have you found anything you like?” Jane asked, walking over to where Darcy was standing, just two dresses in her own selection.   
  
“Why is it so hard to find anything in my size?”  It wasn’t that she was big, but she had curves and she wasn’t exactly tall, and finding anything which accommodated this always proved so difficult.   
  
“Because you should’ve been around in the 40s when they appreciated women like you,” Jane replied.  She knew that sometimes it frustrated Darcy that clothes shopping was so complicated, but there was a perfect dress out there for her, and they were going to find it.  “Here, why don’t you go and try these on?” she picked up the dresses Darcy had found and headed over to the changing rooms.  “I’ll keep on looking.”   
  
Darcy stood in front of the mirror, holding up the first dress in the small pile and discarding it without even trying it on.  She did that with the next two; there was something about the cut of them which didn’t look right to her.  The last dress in the pile, another that Jane had picked out, was tea-length, cream with pale blue and red flowers on the full skirt and bodice and looked to be cut in a way that could be flattering.  Feeling a little bit of hope at the prospect of finding something which both fit and looked good, she stripped off her jeans and sweater and pulled the dress on over her head.  Studying her reflection she stifled the desire to squeal.  The dress was perfect; it looked like something right out of the 40s, just like Jane had said, and was everything that she loved.  Pulling the dressing room curtain open she poked her head out, “Jane,” she called, catching her friend’s attention; she’d been re-searching through one of the racks they’d already gone through.  “I think this might be it.”    


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: the date (and afters!!!)
> 
> Here's the explanation: since I wrote the last chapter I have lost my job, been worrying about finding a new one as the market sucks, and got myself a life companion in the form of a beautiful Ragdoll kitten called Darcy. The job thing is causing a huge drain on emotions and time (4-hours to fill out one 30 page application form!) and I keep on forgetting to take my meds. I am determined I am going to be better...the next chapter is started (promise). Thank you so much for having patience with me.
> 
> As always, if you are interested in finding out more, or finding out where I'm at with the fic then you can always find me on Tumblr (@iantheswriting)


	7. Burgers and bras

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Steve go for dinner a drive and some dessert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, it's taken me just over a month, but the chapter I have been working on (and mentioning a few times on Tumblr) is finally finished, and I am presenting it for your enjoyment. I promised I hadn't forgotten about it, and here is the proof that I was telling the truth. Of course, I have no idea how long it will take me to post Chapter 8, but I am hoping it won't be another eight months. I am looking for a new job, so with any luck in a month or so I will no longer have a 3-4 hour daily commute and the evenings will be mine again (fingers crossed).
> 
> Incredible thanks go to my muse, Palmetto, who helped me to realise that I can do it, and she was right.

“Change,” Tony demanded the moment Darcy walked into the communal kitchen, pointing a finger her and waving it towards the door, startling her out of her distracted daydream.

“Excuse me?” she asked, one eyebrow raised. She looked down at the dress she was wearing and then back up at Tony, unable to see anything wrong with the way that she was dressed. “What’s wrong with this? I look amazing.”

“You look…” he held his hands up and moved them in a way that resembled a curvaceous hourglass.

“And you’re saying that there’s something wrong with that?” She raised an eyebrow at him in enquiry, still trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with how she was dressed. “You liked the figure well enough on my mom!”

“Oh no…” Tony shook his head, quickly pouring himself another whiskey. “We’re not having that conversation. Why aren’t you wearing one of those fluffy sweaters you love so much?”

Deciding that she was better off ignoring anything Tony had to say about her clothes, especially as his track record where fashion was concerned was hardly impeccable, she headed over to the bar and opened the chiller, pulling out a bottle of Coke and some ice. “Tony, you’re overthinking this. I look fabulous.” She dropped the ice into a tall glass and poured over a generous measure of spiced rum and the chilled Coke. It wasn’t that she was nervous and needed Dutch courage or anything, just that she could really do with a drink.

After a little effort she awkwardly managed to climb up onto one of the tall barstools that Tony insisted made the place look more stylish - she had no idea why because she’d never seen him sit on one - and started to flick through a recent issue of Forbes, determined to ignore Tony and anything he had to say that wasn’t related to her clothes, or her choice of date.

“So how is your mom?” Tony asked, not bothering to try and get up on one of the barstools, even he had to admit that they weren’t the most practical seating he could have chosen for the room.

“Do you even remember her?” Darcy hadn’t wanted to broach this subject just yet, but he had brought it up, and she couldn’t help but be curious. It was a question she had often asked herself growing up.

“Your mom?” Clearly she had asked the one question he either didn’t want to answer, or had no answer for. “Wow. I could either tell you the truth, or a happy lie to make you feel better.”

“Really? I’m not a kid, Tony. Believe me, I can handle the truth.” Granted, she might cry a little bit when she was back in her apartment, but she’d hardly reached her age without realising that her biological father either didn’t give a shit about her, or had no idea about her existence.

“I spent most of my teens pretty wasted. Your mom was likely just one in a revolving door, as much as now I wish it was different.”

“You can’t change the past, Tony,” she told him, turning over another page in the magazine, and taking a sip of her rum and coke through a straw. “It was a long time ago.”

Not sure that she could handle that much more truth, Darcy decided to change the subject; she held up the magazine that had a picture of Tony and Pepper on the front of it and asked, “So when’re you going to make her my new mommy?”

He placed his glass down on the bar and took the magazine from Darcy’s hands, pausing for a moment to admire the picture that had been taken, a photoshoot he only remembered because of the pair of mesmerising heels that Pepper had worn, the red and gold Louboutins that he’d had specially designed as an apology for one of his numerous transgressions. And speaking of shoes… “Why are you wearing shoes like that?”

Lifting her legs so that she could admire the shoes she’d managed to find in a sale not long after moving to New York, Darcy was unable to see what issue Tony could possibly have with the red stilettos with white stars decorating the heel. She’d fallen in love with them the moment she’d seen them and had elbowed another very eager buyer in the solar plexus to get to them before someone else did. “Because they go with my dress?” she did a little dance, pointing her toes and turning her ankles to the music in her head, a big smile on her face. “What’s wrong with them?”

“They’re incredibly patriotic. I can get you a pair like Pepper’s, something more suiting my daughter.”

“Urgh!” she exclaimed, having heard all about Tony’s fetish for all things gold and red. “You’d buy me a pair of Pepper’s sexcapade shoes?” 

“Don’t offer to buy her shoes, Tony,” Steve stated as he walked into the kitchen, quietly making his way over to the bar and curling an arm around Darcy’s waist, fighting the desire to bury his face in the tempting pale curve of her neck.

“I’ll offer to buy her whatever I want, Rogers! She’s my daughter.” Tony sounded rather put out that he was being told what to do, and he’d never responded well to orders from anyone, unless they were called Pepper, and were wearing particularly tempting heels.

“For some reason,” Darcy said as she hopped off the stool, using Steve’s arm to brace herself so that she didn’t stagger, “I don’t want to be in the middle of whatever pissing contest this is a part of. So, where are you taking me for this burger, Steve?”

“You be careful tonight, Cap! I don’t want you getting my girl in trouble.” Tony called as Darcy and Steve walked over to the private elevator. “Did you hear? I don’t want any popsicle babies arriving in nine months.”

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Darcy raised a hand and gave Tony a small wave, “Goodnight, Tony. Don’t wait up.” 

Neither paid any mind to the final warning Tony yelled as the elevator doors closed behind them, already wondering what the night held in store.

“So, you didn’t answer me,” Darcy almost purred as she looked up at Steve from beneath lowered lashes, “Where are you taking me tonight?”

“You still want a burger, dressed like that?” He took this opportunity to slowly give Darcy another once-over, enjoying the way that the dress clung to her in all the right places, making her look even more like his personal version of a goddess.

“Are you saying that there’s something wrong with the way I’m dressed?” she demanded. Were she someone with less confidence she’d have a complex by now, but the darkening of Steve’s eyes as he took in the low cut of her neckline, and the generous overspill of cleavage thanks to her new, and rather comfortable, lingerie told her a lot more about what he was thinking and feeling.

“No...no...not at all,” he stuttered, “You look amazing, that dress is just...wow.” The tone of his voice and the way that his eyes continued to focus on her chest made her feel absolutely positive she’d found the perfect dress for tonight. “I just thought that you might want to go somewhere different.” He couldn’t take his eyes off the dress, and the way that it fitted her so perfectly, as though it had been sewn especially for her.

“A burger sounds exactly what I am looking for, honestly. I’ve been craving one since you mentioned it.” She smiled up at him and tightened her grip on his hand as she stood on tiptoe to press a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. “So, I’m hoping you weren’t just proposing we went out for a Big Mac though.”

“Okay,” Steve smiled, his free hand lifting to brush against where she’d kissed him. “How about a Whopper or a Double Stack?” He chuckled when Darcy’s eyes opened comically wide at the prospect of a date at either chain. “Or perhaps you’d prefer chicken?”

~*~

Steve stopped the car outside a rather classy dark blue frontage, opened the door and, after handing the keys to a smartly dressed valet, helped Darcy out of the passenger side, wrapping an arm around her waist to walk her to the door; the restaurant might be on the more elegant side, but the sidewalk definitely hadn’t been designed with heels in mind.

It didn’t take long for them to be seated - there were some advantages to being known as a wealthy hero after all - and for a waiter to take their orders and serve them a bottle of wine, and they were left to entertain each other. As Darcy took a sip of her wine, a slightly acidic white, she looked up from studying her fingernails to find that Steve was watching her closely.

“So…” he started, picking up a well-polished fork and tapping the tines against the tablecloth in a rhythm that could quickly become annoying.

“So…” Darcy replied, fighting the urge to reach over the table and snatch the fork out of his hand.

“Tony’s daughter?” he asked.

Darcy let out a bark of laughter, narrowly avoiding spraying the table with a mouthful of quickly swallowed wine. “You’ve got me alone, for the first time in months, and that’s what you want to talk about?”

“I could talk about how much I want to get you out of here, take you to my apartment and press you up against the wall, and fuck you until you can’t think,” he told her, leaning forward to murmur his filthiest thoughts.

Darcy visibly swallowed, her cheeks flushing as the thought of him doing exactly that filled her head. “You shouldn’t say things like that,” she told him, even though she would quite happily take him up on the offer.

The waiter arrived to serve their food, placing their plates on the table and topping off their wine, then leaving them in private, all without even meeting their eyes.

Undeterred by the momentary interruption, Steve waited a few moments for the waiter to walk away before he picked up their conversation where they’d left off. “Why not? It’s all I can think about. The way that dress fits makes it difficult to concentrate,” he didn’t take his eyes off her as he methodically picked up his burger and took a bite, sure that she realised the hunger in his eyes had nothing to do with the food on his plate and everything to do with the thoughts going through his head.

Darcy, her confidence levels doubled by the way that he was looking at her, picked at the food on her plate; her appetite was completely gone and her stomach felt as though it were full of butterflies. “Who’d have thought that Captain America was nothing but a horny teenager deep down?” she mumbled under her breath, knowing from the expression on his face that he’d heard every word.

“Anyone who knew me?” he replied dryly, still enjoying the flush that coloured Darcy’s cheeks, knowing that his words had put it there. “What made you come to New York?” he asked, finally managing to get his wayward libido under something resembling control.

“In all honesty, I nearly didn’t. I was ready to stay home with mom until I decided what I was going to do next, and then I realised that I missed Janie and Thor, and could just as easily make decisions here as anywhere else. I wasn’t sure I’d like it; I’m a small town girl at heart! London was hellish.”

“The last time I was over there for any length of time it was definitely different,” he agreed, refusing to think about the most recent time he’d been to the busy city. Thinking about Peggy while he was with a woman equally as fascinating was not the sort of thing a gentleman did, though, to be fair, thinking half the things he was thinking weren’t exactly gentlemanly!

“It’s not a bad place, and I’m sure that I’d have had more time if I’d been staying at the Ritz or something instead of in a room off Jane’s mom’s garage.” She could see that Steve had made quick work of his burger and, her appetite almost completely gone thanks to nerves, knowing how much he could easily put away, pushed her plate across. “Here, have this. Can’t have you sitting there with your stomach gurgling as though I’m starving you.” She smiled as he happily took the food from her plate and dipped a few fries in ketchup before eating them.

The waiter, seeing that their bottle of wine was nearly empty, and that Darcy was no longer eating, made his way over to the table, “Sir, Madam...would you like anything else?”

“Do you want something else?” He’d been eyeing the chocolate mousse on the dessert menu since ordering the entree, but he didn’t want to eat alone. He nudged the menu across the table to her and hoped that she wasn’t going to be like the girls Sam whined about who lived off salad and refused sweet things; if the tub of frosting in her purse was anything to go by when they first met then she wasn’t someone who avoided cakes.

“You just don’t want to look like a pig,” she told him as she continued to pore over the menu. “Though I have always loved chocolate mousse,” she stroked her finger down the heavy card and tapped it on the sweet treat, deciding that she was definitely going to go for it. Spanx be damned!

“In that case…” Steve said, taking the menu from her hand and brushing his thumb across the back of her hand lightly, “I guess that’s two chocolate mousses and one creme brulée.” At Darcy’s look of shock that he was clearly contemplating ordering two desserts for himself, he simply shrugged his shoulders, “Sue me, I have a sweet tooth.”

Dessert was 30-minutes of teasing and flirtation. Darcy ensured Steve was watching as she slowly scooped up a small mound of the smooth, slightly bitter, chocolate mousse on her spoon, and then sucked the delicacy into her mouth, her tongue lapping over the ambrosia and taking her time enjoying it. 

Observing Darcy slowly consuming her dessert Steve wished that he was wearing a pair of much looser pants; he felt decidedly uncomfortable in his own skin, and incredibly aware of the fact that his clothes would reveal to absolutely everyone in the restaurant how much he was enjoying her company if he were to stand up. Swallowing back the desire to get a to-go bag and then carry her over his shoulder out to the car, he concentrated on his own food, and did his best to clear his head of the thoughts that were filling it.

“So,” Darcy started, placing the small silver dessert spoon into the bowl for the last time, mentally mourning the fact that the rich chocolate hadn’t lasted just a little bit longer. “Your place, or mine?” 

Steve barely managed not to choke at her forwardness. When she came out with statements like that there was no way he could ignore the fact that he now knew that Tony was her father. Sure, there were small similarities; the way that she used her hands so much to express herself, and the way that she occasionally tilted her head to one side when she was thinking, but now he could also see similarities in the things they said, the way that they thought. Shaking off the thought that he was attracted to Tony’s daughter - she was Darcy first - he pushed away the empty brulée dish in front of him, and sucked in a deep breath. “What about a drive before we head back to the Tower?” He’d do anything to have her alone in a place where there would be no interruptions from people, like her erstwhile father, who were trying to fit in far too many years of parenting in a very short space of time!

Shivering a little as they waited for the valet to bring the car around, Darcy leaned into Steve and closed her eyes, breathing in the scent she would forever associate with him, as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, doing his best to protect her from the wind that had grown stronger while they’d been in the restaurant. “Would you rather go home?” he leaned down and whispered in her ear as she snuggled tighter against his body.

“No,” she shook her head. “I’ll be fine when we get in the car.” And even if she wasn’t, she’d fake it. Given Tony’s reaction to the information that she was going out with Steve, she had no doubt he would do his utmost to interfere if they went back to the Tower and tried to snuggle anywhere he had access to (which, unfortunately, appeared to include her apartment).

Traffic was still heavy as Steve headed in the direction of Central Park. At a loss as to where they could simply sit in the warm and enjoy each other, he drove along West Drive, and turned into the parking lot for Tavern on the Green. He knew that it was a tourist trap, and could easily see that the bar was packed, but even an overpriced cocktail in a crowded bar would be better than sitting in the communal lounge being spied on.

Darcy wasn’t able to hide the look of disappointment on her face when she realised where she was. Her first week in the city Jane had decided to treat her to something truly touristy, and they’d taken a long trek through Central Park and ended up at the Tavern just in time to meet the lunchtime rush. After a disappointing run in with one of the staff who clearly thought they were better than the paying guests (something she’d only come across in larger cities), they’d ended up having a bar snack, and then heading over to a McDonalds for a burger and fries before heading back home to rest their feet. “We could always try and get a hotel room,” she joked, trying to disguise the fact that she was anything but keen on where they were currently sitting.

Frustrated, and wishing that he’d gone with his gut and decided to live outside the Tower, as he’d originally planned, Steve put the car back in gear. He breathed out heavily as he started driving back in the direction of home, feeling as though the evening was ending on a bit of a low note. As though sensing Steve’s emotions, Darcy reached across and squeezed his leg, slowly stroking along the length of his thigh and unable to stifle a giggle when he groaned as she curved her hand around the bulge of his erection. “You switched off central security in your apartment, right?” She asked, this was something she’d not yet taken the time to do, but hoped Steve’d had the common sense to make sure Friday could only spy on him so much.

The lobby was quiet when they got back to the Tower, but that didn’t mean they were alone as they walked to the bank of elevators. Steve wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and dropped a kiss to the top of her head as they waited for a car to arrive to take them to his floor. It didn’t take long for a free elevator to arrive on the first floor; the moment they stepped inside Darcy stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to the line of his jaw, brushing her nose against the smooth skin to breathe him in. “How do you always smell so good?” She asked him as she wrapped her arms around him as far as she could, to get even closer.

“I don’t always,” he chuckled. “You should smell me when I finish a mission, that suit is really great for protecting the skin, but it doesn’t really breathe, y’know.” He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath when he felt her small fingers unbutton a couple of the buttons on his shirt and slip into the gap, brushing lightly over his nipples.

“I missed you,” she told him, sighing when he deftly undid the button at the neck of her dress and started to undo the zipper, slowly sliding it down her back.

“I can’t wait to get you somewhere that prying eyes aren’t watching,” he told her, lifting her in his arms and burying his face in the curve of her neck, all the while keeping one eye on the camera in the corner of the spacious elevator.

It was only a few minutes, that could well have been forever, before the elevator stopped on Steve’s floor, and the doors opened with an almost sci-fi ‘whoosh’.

He carried her out of the elevator and down the hall to his door, taking only seconds to open it with the swipe of his thumb over the pad placed at waist height on the wall. The moment the door was closed behind them, he turned to press her back up against the door, his lips taking hers in a kiss that caused her toes to curl. “Steve,” she breathed against his mouth, her eyes closed and her head hitting against the door with a bang as he trailed his lips and tongue along the line of her throat, teeth gently nipping against the curve of her shoulder.

“You taste just like I remember,” he told her as she slid down the length of his body, her feet hitting the floor with a click of her heels, her legs a little unsteady as she shook her head to clear it of the lust-induced fog that had descended. “I have to see you.” He slowly finished undoing the zipper at the back of her dress, pressing gentle kisses to every inch of flesh that he revealed. “So beautiful,” he whispered, his tone reverent, his breath brushing against the pale skin. “We wasted so much time.” He closed his eyes, frustrated at the thought that they had been so close, yet due to simple circumstance had still been so far away from each other.

“Don’t think about that now,” Darcy told him as she turned, her dress slipping from her shoulders, the light fabric barely making a sound as it dropped to the floor in a pool at her feet.

“I think I like this one even better,” he said, unable to tear his eyes away from the picture she made standing in the middle of his living room in nothing but a lacy bra and matching panties. He kissed the curve of her cleavage as he stood up and then, his eyes never leaving hers, he unhooked the clasp of her bra and nudged the straps down her arms. “Darcy,” he breathed, lifting her in his arms and carrying her through to the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him.


	8. So busy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy's date with Steve goes well, but work must happen. Tony still isn't happy, and the conversation that really should have taken place a long time ago finally is had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it's been a while. I could blame many things; new job (yep, another one), life, depression (a lot of that), and writer's block. Hopefully, you will enjoy this chapter, and it will make up for the fact that I haven't posted in a long while. I have started the next chapter (which will also be the last), and this one was betaed (as always) by the wonderful Palmetto_Blue.

The sound of Beyonce heralding that girls ran the world pulled Darcy from a particularly nice dream about her summer with Steve, one which hadn’t ended with him roaring off into the sunrise on his Harley. Unfortunately, whoever was calling her at the ungodly hour of 7am clearly didn’t think that her dream needed to get a happy ending, as the phone continued to ring. She reached one hand out from under the sheets and grabbed her phone from the nightstand and groaned when she saw the photo of her mom on the screen. Realising that she couldn’t avoid talking to her forever, she carefully lifted Steve’s arm from where it was resting around her waist, pressed a light kiss to his cheek, and then clambered out of the bed.

Closing Steve’s bedroom door she headed over to the couch and swiped her finger across her cellphone screen. “Morning mom, how’s things?” As Helen started to tell her about some of the more scandalous gossip that could only be spread about in a small town, Darcy leaned back on the deep couch cushions and settled in for what could possibly be a long call.

The ringing of a phone had barely registered for Steve; he incorporated the unfamiliar Beyonce song into his dreams and continued to sleep the sleep of someone who had managed to use a lot of energy the night before. He rolled over in bed, reached out and felt lukewarm sheets where a warm Darcy should be. He opened his eyes and checked out the small alarm clock on his nightstand and groaned. He was normally a morning person, out on a run around Central Park well before 6am, but this morning he’d planned on staying in bed for as long as he could. Hearing Darcy giggling in the next room, he slipped out from between the sheets, pulled open the bedroom door and leaned against the frame watching her as she talked animatedly on the phone.

“You couldn’t be more surprised than me, mom. Tony Stark? Really?”

Whatever Helen said at the other end of the line had Darcy giggling almost hysterically and Steve found the sound strangely enchanting. “I promise I’ll call you this weekend, mom. Honest.” Her mom clearly didn’t want the call to end, but he could see that whatever the conversation had covered had drained her. “Mom, I’ve got to go, busy day and all.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, so Darcy didn’t feel guilty saying it, she really did have plans for the day, even though most of them involved getting reacquainted with the man staring at her from his bedroom door with eyes that told her exactly what he was thinking about.

She dropped her phone on the couch, stood up and walked over to Steve. “Give me a minute to brush my teeth and then we can get back to bed,” she stroked a hand down his chest and then headed into the bathroom. Morning breath was no joke, especially after a meal with garlic and onions.

Darcy studied her reflection in the mirror as she cleaned her teeth. The night had been incredible, Steve had been more gentle than he'd been the first time, as though being here had changed the way that he saw things, that this was no longer something for the summer. After gargling and spitting out some mouthwash she brushed her fingers through her hair in an attempt to get rid of some of the tangles at the back of her neck (the curse of long curly hair). She shook her head to clear it of the doubts that were doing their best to crowd out the fact that she knew Steve wasn't only with her for the sex.

She headed back into the bedroom and leaned against the door frame studying Steve as he tried to look casual sitting on the bed reading through the messages on his phone. “Was I gone that long?” she asked as she took his phone from suddenly limp hands and placed it on the dresser. “If anyone needs us they can leave a message,” she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she settled into his lap.

~*~

Darcy knew that she looked well and truly loved when she walked through the lab door and sat down at her desk. It wasn’t a work day, but she knew that as far as her best friend was concerned there was no such thing as a ‘non-work’ day, and if she wanted to have a giggle about how well her date had gone, then she would have to go to Jane in the labs, with the added promise of sickly sweet Pop Tarts and far more coffee than a normal person (and certainly one of Jane’s size) should ever drink in one sitting.

“Well someone’s looking decidedly smug,” Jane stated as soon as she looked up from fastening a screw on one of her duct-tape inventions. “I take it this means last night went well?”

Bouncing a little in her seat, Darcy nodded her head. Meeting Jane’s eyes over the lip of her own steaming coffee mug, “I thought it would be a little bit awkward, but he was exactly like he was back home. I kept on thinking that I would have to call you for an escape, but there was no need.” She started to play with the loose flap on the box of Pop Tarts she’d acquired from Tony’s secret stash – a stash he didn’t think anyone knew about, stupid man!

“You weren’t at your apartment this morning,” Jane stated, her tone a little sly. “Don’t tell me you’ve decided to start going on a run first thing.” She giggled a little when she saw the way that Darcy had started to blush, her pale cheeks growing warm and rosy.

“I was exercising all right,” she said before Jane could get in a slightly purple joke. “But it was much more fun than anything dreamed up in a gym. Oh boy, now I know why you and Thor always seem so happy when he comes back from wherever the rainbow bridge takes him.”

“That good?” For a moment Jane got a dreamy look in her eye and a sappy smile on her face, the sort of expression that Darcy was used to seeing whenever her friend caught a glimpse of the hunky Asgardian.

“If the noises you two make when you get together are anything to judge by, then definitely.”

“Anyway,” Jane said after taking a fortifying sip of the coffee Darcy had brought her and a gleeful bite of a sickly breakfast pastry. “Are you just here to boast about how great your date was last night, or are you going to help me write up some of the notes from the last trip to the observatory?”

~*~

It was well past lunch when Darcy was able to persuade Jane to take a break. She’d sent Steve a few texts, and his replies had given her a dreamy smile that Jane had soon wiped from her face with another pile of pages in her almost illegible scribble. “Stop giggling,” Jane told her as she focused on fixing another machine that was, apparently, not doing what she wanted it to.

“Stop being a grouch,” Darcy responded, but she stuffed her phone into her bag and turned her attention back to the notes, typing in line after line of data.

The grumbling of her stomach let her know that it was definitely time for a break and something to eat, and the clock over the door clearly showed it was gone 1pm. “Come on, Janey. It’s time to get you something less junk food to eat.” She saved the work she’d input on the database, and closed the machine down. No matter what Jane said, she was finished for the day, having never intended to do any work in the first place. “I heard that they’re doing sloppy joes and spicy curly fries in the canteen today.”

Jane barely twitched, her attention completely on the task at hand, but Darcy wasn’t having it. She knew only too well how bad things could get if Jane ignored the needs of her body, she’d rescued her friend from the destruction and poor results her hunger-induced irritability could cause. “If you don’t put that down now then I’m going to turn the power off.” Darcy’s finger hovered over the emergency power button that was fitted in every lab as a safety precaution; fires were a very common thing in the Stark research labs.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Jane looked up from the thingummy she was still fiddling with, Darcy never bothered to learn the names of the equipment, and gave her friend a glare. “I just need to finish this, and then I can start gathering more data.”

“Nope. No way. That’s not going to happen, Janey. We’re going to the canteen and I’m going to enjoy eating my weight in curly fries, and then I’m going to find my way back to Steve’s apartment and we’re going to spend the rest of the weekend getting to know each other better,” she did something funny with her eyebrows that had Jane a little confused. “If you know what I mean.”

Jane rolled her eyes and heaved a big sigh as she reluctantly put down her screwdriver. “I don’t know how no one ever guessed you were related to Tony,” She locked away the equipment she was working on, ever since Shield had taken everything she’d painstakingly created when they invaded the lab in New Mexico she was far more careful about what she left out for everyone to see, you never knew when someone was going to decide they needed your work for ‘the greater good’. “I guess the sloppy joes do sound good,” she agreed, though a little reluctantly. “Come on, let’s go to the canteen before they run out of food.” Though that was something of an impossibility with chefs on site 24-hours a day for the staff who worked round the clock in almost every department.

The canteen was always busy, and Saturday lunchtime was no different. Darcy could see a few eager-to-please interns gathered around a table chattering excitedly over a pile of cheesy nachos, and on the other side of the spacious hall Steve was sitting with her dad (great) and an elegantly coiffed and smartly dressed Pepper Potts, all three of them talking rather seriously about something which had Tony doing some very animated hand movements, his mouth moving nineteen to the dozen.

“There’s Steve over there, want to go and join him?” Jane pointed out as she picked up a bottle of water from the fridge and nudged Darcy over to the hot food counter; the smell of deep fried something drawing her.

Darcy shook her head, no, she did not want to get in the middle of whatever that conversation was, and feel her dad’s eyes on her, watching to see how close she’d dare get to Steve in public. “Why don’t we go and sit over by the window,” she asked, pointing at one of the empty tables. Sure, the weather was gloomy, but anything was better than feeling as though she was being constantly watched. “It’s the closest you’ll have been to sunlight in days.”

Shrugging, Jane pointed to the crispy fries just out of the fryer on the hot counter, and then at the gooey looking spicy nacho sauce, nodding when the server tipped a whole ladle of it over the fries.

Darcy wasn’t feeling overly hungry now, even though everything in the canteen (barring the cauliflower medley that Tony seemed to love for some unknown reason) smelled amazing. She picked up a healthy bowl of salad and then piled it high with bacon bits, crunchy croutons and Caesar dressing and headed over to the table she’d pointed out to Jane.

“I thought we agreed you were going to eat something green,” Darcy told Jane as her friend happily stuffed the fries in her face. “Seriously, Jane, it’s a wonder you’re not the size of a house the amount of crap you eat.” Darcy tried not to be jealous, she only had to look at a doughnut or pastry and put on a few pounds. Luckily, she’d grown used to her figure so, apart from the occasional feeling that she really should get herself to the gym and work off that tub of Phish Food or the bear claw she sometimes chose to have instead of fruit, she was happy with who she was, and how she looked. So she was a little bit curvier than Jane (okay, a lot curvier than Jane), but she had something a lot of the girls at school who’d looked down their noses at her had, Steve Rogers’ attention, in bed and out!

“Hmm?” Jane asked, mouth stuffed with slightly spicy cheese sauce. She delicately wiped her face with her napkin and studied Darcy with concern. Something was clearly now bothering the younger girl, and Jane wasn’t sure she liked this more introspective side of her loyal friend. “Are you okay?”

“Absolutely A-OK,” Darcy said, giving up the ghost with her salad, having had enough of the salty crunch of bacon and the rich dressing. “Not sure I like that, though.” She waved her fork over at the table where Steve, Pepper and Tony were still talking. Not one of them had cracked a smile, once, and it was starting to worry her. Was Tony reading Steve the riot act, acting like the father she hadn’t been aware she’d had for the last twenty-something years of her life? Was Pepper supporting him? Was Steve intimidated?

“Maybe it’s nothing to do with you at all? They work together, maybe it’s about a mission, or his uniform, or anything.” She went back to eating her fries, every once in a while trying to give Darcy something resembling a reassuring smile, though with a string of cheese hanging from her chin it looked somewhat less convincing.

“You’re right, it could be anything. Tony would never interfere!” She rolled her eyes though Jane was used to the sarcasm, it came so naturally to the young brunette. Of course, now they knew that Darcy was related to Tony, the scientist knew that her ex-intern came by her nature honestly.

Finally, Jane was finished with her lunch, she wiped her greasy fingers on the hem of her sweatshirt, and pushed her plate to the middle of the table before standing up and brushing crumbs from the fries onto the floor. “Come on, there’s loads to do before you go back to debauching Captain America.” She said the words quietly enough that only Darcy, and Steve, could hear. Darcy blushed, colour suffusing her cheeks, and she wished that she could say something, but for once she didn’t have a witty comeback to hand.

Of course, once back down in the safety of the labs, Darcy couldn’t resist telling Jane that he was definitely the one who had done the debauching, and he’d been incredibly good at it.

“He looks like butter wouldn’t melt now,” Darcy confided, leaning in close to ensure that this was just between the two of them, she didn’t trust the interns who worked round the clock in the labs not to use this as a bit of salacious gossip. “But back home he looked like he could tempt the angels.” A sigh left her as she thought about the bad boy vibe he’d given off when they first met; someone who could seduce you out of your bra while, at the same time, opening a door for you and playing the perfect gentleman.

Jane wasn’t quite sure what to say; she’d never looked at Steve and seen more than the uniform, all patriotism, honesty and goodness, a little bit too much good to give her cause to see him as anything else.

“I miss the scruff,” Darcy admitted, absently drawing a circle on the desk with her fingertip. “He looked so different. I mean, he was my fifth-grade history project and I didn’t recognise him at all, especially with his clothes off.” She grinned then, the sort of grin that any woman would recognise; a little bit smug, and a lot happy memories.

“Okay, dreamer! Enough of the filthy thoughts. We need to get this research all typed up ready for presenting tomorrow morning, and you promised you’d help.” To get Darcy’s attention back on track, Jane threw a handful of Skittles at her friend, giggling a little when she shook her head to get rid of a few of the brightly coloured candies that tangled in her curls.

“Right. So where do you want all this stuff saved then?” Darcy pulled a pile of the papers that Jane had been scribbling over closer to the computer and started keying in the data as quick as she could without making a mistake. The sooner this was done the sooner she could get back to where she really wanted to be, which was certainly not in the depths of a secure lab with the constant beep and whirr of various pieces of machinery that might one day bridge the gaps between multiple dimensions and worlds.

“The back-up drive is in the safe,” Jane told her, though her tone was absent as she’d already switched her focus back to the results of her latest experiment.

Darcy would never claim that the next few hours flew by; she was tired, hungry, and wanted nothing more than to head back to Steve. Every once in a while her cellphone would ping and she’d check the screen to see another photo, or message, from Steve. He’d obviously been to the gym and done a workout to pass the time, she could see the glisten of sweat at his hairline, and the thought of watching him lift weights had her licking her lips. “Janie, please say we’re nearly finished.” She finished copying another line of data from the sheets of research into the database and clicked save, watching as the little rainbow wheel turned slowly in the centre of the screen as everything was processed.

“Are you done with the data?” Jane continued to tinker with the equipment she’d been assembling for the last few hours, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she was making.

“It’s mostly done,” Darcy told her friend, the rainbow wheel continued to turn on the screen. “But I think it’s going to take hours to save.” Data entry wasn’t her favourite thing however, it wasn’t normally something she avoided. Right now, though, she wanted nothing more than to close the machine down. Her mind was full of nothing but Steve and she wondered if perhaps sex addiction was hereditary; she was sure she’d read something somewhere about Tony having been treated for it sometime during the late 80s, though that could just be gossip.

“Okay, save that load onto the back-up, put the drive back in the safe and you can go.”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, clearly, Jane had forgotten she was no longer the lab lackey, Darcy pulled her cellphone from her pocket and tapped out a quick message and sent it, then continued to watch as the circle of doom revolved on her computer screen. Why was it that when she wanted things to speed up they seemed determined to take an eternity?

Steve was sitting in the communal lounge with Sam, going over their most recent mission when Darcy sent his message letting him know that she was finally finished Jane-sitting and would be heading back to his apartment within the next 30 minutes. He did his best to look casual when he made his excuses, but Sam wasn’t one to let things go easily, and he just loved to wind people up whenever the opportunity arose. “You sure do like to live dangerously, Cap. I would’ve sworn you were a virgin, but when you decide to get busy you choose Stark’s little girl.”

“Hardly a little girl, Sam. She’s not exactly in high school anymore.” He snagged a tub of ice cream from the freezer on his way to the door, and then almost ran back to his apartment, ignoring the elevator in favour of the stairs – sometimes things in the Tower were slower than his own feet.

He grinned when he heard the lock to the front door click, and the door opened with a quiet whoosh a few moments after he’d sat down on his couch and switched the TV on. He turned and watched as Darcy kicked off her shoes, draped the handle of her tote over the coat hook on the back of the door, and walked further into the room. She slid onto the couch beside Steve, ducked under his arm and rested her head against his chest. “It’s been a long day, take me to bed.”


	9. At Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas has come, people are visiting, and Darcy is making a move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised that I had started the final chapter, I had, and here is the proof. Almost three years ago I made my first hesitant step into the MCU-verse and now I am here, Unexpected is finished (with the support of my beta and friend Palmetto_Blue - who writes brilliant Reylo for anyone who would like to read some good SW next gen fic).
> 
> I hope that you enjoy what I have written.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has sent me wonderful feedback or left a Kudos on this, or Serendipity. This isn't a farewell, there are ideas there chattering away. But the Destiny series is now finished (with two parts) and I hope that you enjoy the last chapter.

Darcy ripped open the last door on the advent calendar and plucked out the piece of chocolate in the shape of a very fat and jolly Santa. “And you’re all mine,” she mumbled around the delicious treat, which was gone all too quickly.

“I thought we agreed that Santa was mine this year,” Jane said as she walked into Darcy’s office, unable to hold back the grin as she watched her friend wipe her fingers on a napkin that had come with lunch.

“You snooze, you lose,” Darcy replied, licking her lips to make sure she hadn’t missed any of the chocolate before she mournfully closed the little cardboard door and placed the calendar back on the bookshelf. “So what are you doing up here? Did I miss a meeting in the labs?” Jane rarely left the hallowed lab floor, choosing instead to ring up to Darcy’s office when she wanted to head to the canteen, or, on very rare occasions, out into the wilds of New York for some fake fresh air.

“I wanted to catch you eating the last chocolate,” Jane grinned, every year Darcy would claim that as her mom was Jewish she didn’t need an advent calendar, but every single year when the stores started to sell them she’d make sure there was one in every single living space, and this year was no different.

“You say that as though it’s a common thing.” Darcy knew that the protestations would do her little good, she was known for only a few things around the Tower and Tony Stark being her dad was, thankfully, not one of them!

“Are you going to try and tell me it’s not? Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten your mom is flying in tonight and you made me promise to go with you to the airport to pick her up.” Even though Tony had offered to collect Helen from the airport she’d declined the offer, telling him that she actually liked to travel coach, and really didn’t want all the fuss that went with a Tony Stark flightplan – namely the risk of paparazzi at the gates and sly knowing glances from staff who really were paid enough that who their passengers were shouldn’t matter.

“Oh crap!” Darcy exclaimed, checking her watch and seeing that she was really cutting it fine. She’d have to drive like the wind to make it through the holiday traffic to meet her mom’s flight. She quickly opened a browser window and clicked the airline bookmark. “Phew,” she stated a moment later, “they left thirty minutes late, so I’ve got enough time to get changed.” She was still wearing the suit she’d put on for a meeting with the board that morning. Time had escaped from her and she’d been so busy that she’d been distracted by all the pre-holiday emails; funding requests from various departments, resumes for jobs that didn’t exist, and begging letters from senators who wanted campaign money (she had no idea how the last lot of mails had ended up in her inbox, she didn’t deal with that sort of enquiry). “Okay, I’ll meet you down in the garage in twenty, I just need to change into something less starchy.”

She took the elevator up to the residential floors, resisting the urge to ask Friday to go at top speed – that way only led to disaster, as she had learned one day to her detriment – and made short work of finding something less official and more ‘I am still Darcy from Iowa’, a peasant blouse and pair of well-worn jeans. As she rushed out again she grabbed a set of car keys from the hook behind the door and headed down to the garage to meet Jane. She was breathless and made it by the skin of her teeth, but they would have enough time to find somewhere to park and get to the gate before the plane doors opened and everyone started to make their way to the building.

So much had happened over the last few months that Darcy had to fight back the urge to cry when she saw her mom’s familiar face as she pulled her suitcase behind her and headed through the doors into the main terminal. She waited until Helen had hiked her backpack onto her shoulders before she rushed over and wrapped her arms around her mom’s body and buried her face in soft coconut-scented curls. “I missed you,” Darcy mumbled, her voice a little nasally as she sniffled.

“I missed you too, sweetheart, but you know you could have come back for a visit at any time. Your room’s always there.” Helen hugged Darcy a little tighter, relieved that things hadn’t turned into a disaster when the truth about her father had come to light; it could have gone very wrong.

“You’re staying in my spare room, hope that’s okay,” Darcy stated as she unsnapped the handle of Helen’s wheelie suitcase and guided her mom out of the airport and over to where Jane was waiting in the car – parking had not been as easy as they’d hoped, so Jane had offered to stay with the car and drive around until she saw her friend waiting at the pick up/drop off point.

The drive back to the Tower was a lesson in patience and one that, if she’d been alone, Darcy would have failed with a grade of 0%. The interstate was packed full of holidaymakers who were leaning their full weight on their car horns, clearly taking part in a competition to find out whose car sounded the loudest. Darcy was relieved that Jane was driving, because nerves were finally starting to get the better of her. She’d been honest in telling Helen that Steve was in the Tower, and that they were seeing each other; what she hadn’t mentioned was that Steve was also Captain America, almost 100 years old, and they were sort of, but not quite, living together.

They pulled into the underground parking structure and Darcy helped Helen to gather all her things together before they called the elevator. She fiddled nervously with the zipper on her jacket as she watched the numbers on above the door climb higher and higher. “I’m moving in with Steve next week,” she finally blurted as the bell pinged and the doors opened onto the communal living roomlounge.

As the doors slid shut behind them Darcy could feel everyone’s eyes on her. “Hi,” she said, waving at them all and attempting something resembling an ‘Oh dear God when am I going to learn?’ smile.

Acting as though she was completely unaware of the silence which had fallen over the occupants of the room, Helen walked over to stand in front of Tony and Pepper. She hadn’t seen the man in over 20 years, at least not in the flesh, but now, looking at him, she could admit that she’d always had good taste in men, even when three sheets to the wind. “Tony,” she finally said, having finished giving him a very thorough once over; she might be happily married and 100% over him, but that didn’t mean she was blind!

“Helen,” Tony replied. Looking at this woman he had barely spared a thought for until Darcy had shown up, he could see where their daughter had got a lot of her looks from, especially those blue eyes.

“Helen,” Pepper interjected, before the silence between the parents got too uncomfortable, “let me show you to the apartment.” She glared at Tony as she guided Darcy’s mom back to the elevator.

The moment the doors closed again Tony virtually stomped over to where Darcy and Steve were talking quietly, everyone else had gone back to what they’d been passing the time with before the arrival of their guest. “You can’t move in with him, I forbid it.”

The moment the words left his lips he was aware of how ridiculous they sounded; however, it wasn’t until Darcy burst into hysterical giggles that he realised he had missed the boat; she was no longer a child to be reprimanded and prevented from doing things, he had to respect that she was an adult and could make her own life choices, and he didn’t have to like them, he just had to let her make them.

“Oh Tony, that’s so funny!” Darcy finally managed to get the words out after clinging almost helplessly to Steve’s side for a few minutes as the laughter overtook her. “At least we’re being somewhat conventional, unlike you and my mom. Anyway, I promised I’d cook dinner tonight so I need to call for takeout.” She twined her fingers with Steve’s and tugged him until he was following behind her. “See you later, guys.”

Ten minutes and four discarded menus later, Darcy had ordered a combination of healthy and fried food from the nearest Thai restaurant – she had no doubt that Tony would have hired a chef and had him cook some elaborate meal had she asked – and she was sitting down on the couch curled around Steve, her head resting on his shoulder, her legs draped across his thighs. “You seem really on edge tonight,” she told him as she brushed her fingers through his hair, grinning when he nudged her hand to encourage more. “We can go and eat at my place if you would rather not be surrounded by Lewis women.”

“I’m fine, just have a lot on my mind. But I want to spend time with you, and unless your mom brings some of her home cooking with her it’s all good.” He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the sensation of her touching him with her fingers, the pressure on his scalp firm yet gentle, the movements comforting. Darcy had such a calming effect on him, whenever they were together she would always be touching him, and it wasn’t necessarily in a sexual way – not that he minded that at all, he’d be insane to mind a beautiful woman wanting him. She liked to stroke his face, brush her fingers along the back of his hand when they were just sitting together watching a movie, or press a light kiss to his cheek when she was rushing off somewhere. Even when she was in a hurry she made sure to let him know that she was thinking of him, that she cared about him.

Over the last few weeks he’d been giving a lot of thought to their relationship. Moving in together wasn’t the big step that he’d thought it would be. Sure, for a few moments his 1940s sensibilities had sat up and protested, but then he’d started thinking of the alternatives, and he’d realised that he wanted to be with her more than he wanted anything else. He’d helped her pack up the first few boxes within hours, and now they were just days away from sharing all their living space, and he couldn’t wait.

Dinner went smoothly. Helen had protested a little when she’d realised that Darcy’s new idea of home-cooked was more along the lines of finding the nearest takeout that delivered, but the food had been delicious, and the company even better. After the food had been finished and the table cleared away, Darcy had proudly given her mom a tour around Steve’s apartment; showing her all the little things that they’d already done together in an effort to make the apartment into their home.

Finally, at midnight, Helen had cried off another glass of a particularly fine blush wine from Tony’s Napa vineyard, and left, leaving Steve and Darcy curled up against each other on the couch, the TV on but neither of them actually watching anything. “Let’s go to bed,” Darcy said around a particularly wide yawn, standing up and pulling Steve to his feet. “We can snuggle in there just as well.”

Steve followed her gladly and blindly; he was happy wherever she was, and if that happened to be in his bed then he was all the more for it.

Morning came all too soon, and with it the realisation that at some point overnight it had started to snow. Darcy uncharacteristically bound out of bed and pulled open the curtains, “I so called it,” she said, leaning back against Steve as he stood behind her staring at the snow falling past the window.

“What did you call?” He couldn’t help but ask, she was incredibly happy about whatever it was.

“I told Janey it would snow and she told me something about barometric pressure, so I bet her fifty bucks, and I won!”

“And how do you plan on spending this unexpected bounty?” He murmured against her ear, enjoying the way that she curled into him, asking for more of his touch. Before Darcy, before his time in Iowa he hadn’t believed that he would ever find something like this; that he would ever be with someone that wanted and needed him rather than Captain America.

“I don’t know, maybe ice skating in Central Park, or a month of coffee?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me. Though I think it’ll probably only last you about two weeks.” Steve pressed a kiss on the top of Darcy’s head. “I’m going to hit the gym, but I promise I’ll be ready for breakfast.”

Wearing a onesie with reindeer antlers and fuzzy red buttons, Darcy got the elevator down to the communal kitchen. Once there she poured a large mug of coffee – mentally blessing whoever it was that had thought to make a fresh pot, the brew was hot and smelled incredible – and headed over to the large couch. “Friday, turn on the TV,” she asked before taking a healthy sip of the coffee and closing her eyes to savour the much-needed caffeine as it started to flood her system. She smiled when she noticed that Friday had managed to find one of her favourite Christmas movies The Santa Clause and it already reached her favourite scene, where Scott Calvin arrived at the North Pole and was shown through the brightly coloured workshop before meeting Judy. Judy was her favourite character, and Darcy had spent so much of her childhood trying to find the perfect hot chocolate recipe, but had never succeeded.

Huddled under a blanket she continued to watch the movie, laughing when Scott went for a medical and his heart played jingle bells. Sometimes it was nice to escape from the more serious reality of being an adult, and revisit things which reminded her of so much simpler times.

“The Santa Clause? Again?” Helen sat down next to her daughter on the sofa and stole Darcy’s coffee mug for a sip.

“So? And hey…” She gave her mom a mock glare when she took another, much bigger, sip of the nectar that was a hazelnut coffee. “I thought you didn’t poison your body with caffeine anymore.”

“Yes,” Helen countered, “well what happens in New York stays in New York.”

Managing to refrain from groaning at the cliché, Darcy snatched her coffee back. “That’s Vegas, mom!”

“Anyway, why are you down here alone? Why aren’t you upstairs with Steve?”

“Because for some reason he goes to the gym everyday, and he’s one of those weird people who actually like it.” She was never going to understand why Steve liked working out, but she wasn’t going to complain about the results; Steve Rogers sweaty and energised after a couple of hours in the gym often proved to be more than she could handle, though she certainly had fun trying.

“Are you happy?” Helen didn’t care about anything else, not even the fact that her daughter seemed to be building a relationship with her irresponsible playboy of a father, so long as she was happy.

“Yes. Yes, I really am.”

“Are we interrupting something?” Tony called as he walked into the room, like his daughter automatically heading for the coffee machine, he was someone who struggled to function on a human level without it.

“Not at all, Tony. We were just watching a movie.”

It didn’t take long for the living room to fill up once Tony sent out a message, via Friday, letting everyone know that it was soon going to be time to dish out the gifts that had been piling up under the tree for the last few weeks. Darcy snuggled against her mom until Steve arrived, freshly showered and smelling like cedar and citrus. He sat down behind her and wrapped his arms around her, burying his nose against the curve of her neck and pressing light kisses to her skin. She couldn’t help but shiver a little in pleasure, his touch causing goosebumps to appear on the back of her arms.

He watched as Darcy got a healthy pile of presents, no doubt most of them were from Tony – who, it seemed, was trying to make up for many years of being an absent and unaware parent. Darcy didn’t really care, she opened each gift carefully, but she kept her emotions in check until she opened a velvet box containing a delicate heart pendant on a silver chain. Inside was a picture of Tony with his mother, and it was engraved ‘To Mommy, Love Tony’.

“I think she’d want you to have it,” Tony told her, feeling a little awkward, and looking it, when Darcy almost flew across the room to wrap him in a tight hug. “You’re just like her.”

Emotional outburst over, Darcy moved back to lounge against Steve, giggling quietly when he brushed his fingers over the exposed skin of her shoulder. “Marry me,” he whispered against the shell of her ear.

Her head turned so quickly that, had his reflexes not been better, Steve may well have ended up with a broken nose. “What?” She asked him, her voice low so she didn’t get them any unwanted attention.

“Marry me? I love you.”

In answer, she leaned forward brushed her nose against his in an Eskimo kiss, then kissed him properly. “I love you too. Yes,” she murmured back, against his lips.

Uncaring if they had an audience – though they didn’t, everyone was too busy opening presents and exclaiming over the ridiculously expensive toys Tony felt he needed to give out – Steve slipped a ring on her finger and pulled her even closer, closing his eyes as the scent that was purely Darcy, coffee hazelnut and sugar, surrounded him. He was finally home.


End file.
